


All That's Left Unsaid

by Laroja



Category: Football RPF
Genre: AU, M/M, NaNoWriMo, Warnings May Change, absolutely no editing, and other shameless tactics to boost my word count, lots of pointless rambling, more characters and pairings may be added during the course of the story, possible future inconsistencies, the title is still subject to change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-07
Updated: 2015-04-01
Packaged: 2018-02-24 11:35:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 39,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2580047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laroja/pseuds/Laroja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daniel and Martin used to be best friends until they weren't anymore. After years of avoiding each other, they are suddenly forced into sharing a room at their boarding school. Will they be able to overcome what happened in the past or is it too late to salvage whatever is left of their friendship?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my NaNoWriMo Project 2014! For those of you who don't know what NaNoWriMo is, it's short for National Novel Writing Month and basically, it means that every year, the participants have the whole month of November to try and write a 50,000-word novel. This is my third time participating and it's always great fun (most of the time xD) and this time around, I have decided to write this Skagger Boarding School AU.
> 
> Now, par for the course of NaNoWriMo, nothing gets edited. Edited is not allowed. NaNoWriMo is all about writing without looking back, editing comes when it's over. As such, there will be mistakes in this fic, there might be inconsistencies in plot and characterisation and there will definitely be lots of repetitions and other shameless tactics to boost my word count. I apologise for all of that but please, if you decide to read this and stick with me through this whole thing, be kind, I don't do it on purpose. Mostly, I'm just posting this now, unedited as it is, because knowing myself, I'm probably going to reach the point where I need the extra pressure from not wanting to disappoint any possible readers by abandoning this fic.
> 
> Anyway, I hope this doesn't suck too much and if you want to talk about this fic, NaNoWriMo or anything else, come and follow me on Tumblr! :)  
> http://thesuperlambanana.tumblr.com/

Daniel Agger was sitting in his bedroom on top of his large suitcase and looked around the room that looked weirdly empty. He should’ve gotten used to this by now, it was not like he was leaving for the first time but somehow, it never felt any less strange. He sighed, mentally going through a list of everything he’d need for another year at boarding school in an effort to make sure he had really packed everything he needed. No matter how often he had already gone through this, he always felt woefully underprepared.

His mobile phone chimed, the sound of an incoming message effectively distracting him from fretting more over his departure from his home.

He fumbled for a few seconds, almost dropping the phone on the floor until he finally managed to wrangle it from his pocket. He smiled when he saw who the message was from and quickly opened it.

 _‘have fun @ school w/o me loser’_ , he read and snorted.

 _‘maybe i’ll finally manage to get some work done w/o u distracting me all the time’_ , he quickly texted back and a reply followed almost immediately.

_‘you and i remember boarding school very differently’_

_‘yeah what’s that supposed to mean, asshole’_

_‘two words: chemistry project’_

Daniel laughed and shook his head, remembering all too well what had happened back then.

_‘you accidentally blow stuff up ONE time…’_

_‘accidentally my ass’_

For a few seconds, Daniel stared silently at the words on his mobile’s screen, smiling slightly.

 _‘i’m gonna miss you’_ he typed back, his thumb hovering over the ‘send’ button for a few moments before he quickly deleted what he had written.

 _‘what’s that about your ass?’_ he sent back instead.

 _‘it’s a magnificent ass’_ came the reply and he was about to answer with another absolutely scathing and sarcastic remark, when his mother knocked on the door.

“Are you ready, Daniel?” she asked as she entered the room and Daniel nodded, while putting the mobile phone back into his pocket.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Are you sure you’ve packed everything you need?”

Daniel rolled his eyes and got up off the suitcase. “Yes, mum. I got everything.”

“Are you absolutely sure?”

“ _Yes_ , mum. Seriously, it’s not like this is the first time. Relax, I got it covered. And if I did forget something, you can always send it to me later on.”

His mother turned to him with a soft smile. “I know, darling. But a mother never can quite stop worrying about her children. That’s part of the job. And I can’t believe you’re leaving again already. Summer always goes by so quickly.”

“Aww, mum, come on,” Daniel said and went to hug his mother. “I’ll be back for Christmas, that’s hardly any time at all. You just wait, I’m gonna follow you around everywhere and you’re gonna be so sick of me, you’ll be glad when it’s time for me to go back again.”

“Never, darling. Now come on, we have to go or else you’ll miss your train.”

Daniel slipped away from the embrace and put a hand over his heart. “Ah, so now you want to get rid of me! I see how it is. You don’t love me at all, do you? You’re just pretending!” Daniel replied and let out an exaggerated sigh. “Oh, how you hurt my poor fragile heart, woman.”

“Go!” his mother instructed with a fond smile and Daniel went back to his suitcase.

“I’ll be down in a sec,” he told her before fishing out his phone again.

 _‘gotta go’_ he wrote. _‘ttyl’_

With that, he pocketed the phone and grabbed the heavy suitcase. A whoosh of breath left his lungs when he started lugging it out of his room and down the stairs. He really needed to learn how to pack lighter.

 

30 minutes and a lot of sweat later, the suitcase was successfully stashed in the boot of his parents’ car and everyone had finally buckled up. Both of Daniel’s older siblings had had to go into work that morning so they had already said their goodbyes the day before and now it was only him and his parents left. They pulled out of the driveway and Daniel checked his text messages once more.

 _‘don’t do anything i wouldn’t do’_ the latest message read and at his rather unflattering snort, his mother turned around to face him.

“Is that Stephen?” she asked and Daniel nodded. “It’s a shame he isn’t coming back to school this year,” she continued. “He is such a nice young man.”

“Yeah, well, that doesn’t really help paying for tuition, does it?” Daniel replied bitterly. Steve Finnan had been his best friend ever since their first day at boarding school. They had met on the train and had immediately hit it off. It had been very Harry Potter except that none of them was famous and they were both still waiting for their letter from Hogwarts which was taking an outrageous amount of time to finally arrive.

He and Steve had been pretty much attached at the hip in all their time at school. Well, at least until recently. Steve’s parents had gone through a rather nasty divorce and as a result, Mrs Finnan hadn’t been able anymore to pay for her son’s tuition all on her own so she had decided to take Steve out of the school and have him finish his education at a different, public school much to both boys’ dismay.

Daniel was going to miss his best friend. They had always had each other’s back and had been partners in crime more than once. They had also been roommates ever since their first year and had been looking forward to their last year when they were finally going to be allowed to share a double room with just the two of them. Not that Daniel minded most of the other boys in their year but they had been dreaming about that double room for years now. And now that they had been so close to finally getting it…

He sighed. No use in crying over spilled milk, he told himself. He was just going to have to arrange himself with the change in plan. At least they still had text messages and Skype to get by without each other. That and their plan to move into a shared flat after school. They would get their dream of living together. Just a bit later than originally planned.

“Now, Daniel, don’t be like that. I know it’s not easy to lose a friend but you’ll find other people to spend your time with. It’s just the normal way of life. You’ve lost friends before; you know how these things work.”

And wow, wasn’t _that_ something he absolutely didn’t want to talk about.

“Though I still do wonder what happened with that other boy at school. What was his name again? Marcus? Malcolm? Something with an ‘M’, Daniel, dear, help your mother out, will you?”

Daniel groaned and let his head thump against the car window. “Mum, can we _please_ not talk about that? That’s all in the past, everyone’s moved on and I’d really rather not waste more time on the subject.”

“But –“

“ _Muuuuuuum_!” Daniel whined and his mother sighed.

“Alright then. We’re here anyway.”

Daniel breathed a sigh of relief as he watched his father pull up to the train station. He knew his mother meant well but s _he_ also knew that she had been touching a very sore spot with Daniel. One would think that after two years, people would finally get the message and stop talking and speculating about it but so far, no such luck.

 

He climbed out of the car and joined his parents at the boot, helping his father to lift his suitcase out of it. Together, they made their way to the platform from which his train would be leaving in a few minutes and his mother pulled him into a tight hug.

“I’m going to miss you,” she sniffed and Daniel wriggled a bit, trying to loosen her grip. “Take care of yourself, will you?”

“Mum,” he complained and looked beseechingly at his father who chuckled and put a hand on his mother’s shoulder.

“Let the poor boy breathe, love,” he said and Daniel’s mother let go of him reluctantly.

“Now listen to your mother and be a good boy,” his father continued and Daniel rolled his eyes.

“Seriously, dad, I’m _seventeen_ , I know how to behave myself.”

“We know you do. But it’s our parental duty to remind you of it.”

His father smiled and hugged him briefly.

“Don’t forget to call us every once in a while,” his mother added. “And please don’t blow anything up this year.”

“That was _one time_!” Daniel protested and his parents’ laughter was drowned out by the noise of the train pulling into the station.

Daniel quickly embraced each parent one last time and sent his mother – whose eyes were suspiciously wet – an exasperated look. “Please don’t start crying now, mum.”

“I can’t help it,” his mother replied with a wet smile. “I don’t like it when you’re gone for so long.”

Daniel rolled his eyes and began dragging his suitcase towards the train. He heaved it into the wagon and quickly followed suit. Before the doors closed he leaned out of the train one last time.

“Shouldn’t have sent me to boarding school then!” he yelled and grinned when he could hear his mother laughing again.

“Have fun!” his father yelled back.

“We love you!” his mother added and Daniel waved at them.

“Love you, too!” he called and jumped back as the doors closed. He grabbed his suitcase and started his search for an empty seat, trailing his heavy luggage behind him.

It didn’t take him long until he had found an empty compartment and after stowing his suitcase in the luggage rack, he collapsed on one of the seats, breathing heavily. Times like these, he really envied some of his classmates for their effective packing skills. Skills, he clearly lacked himself as evidenced by the enormous suitcase he travelled with year by year. Finns had always managed to stuff all his belongings into a suitcase that was half the size of Daniel’s own but he had steadfastly refused to tell Daniel his secret. Daniel suspected magic. It was definitely magic.

He opened his backpack and took out the book they were supposed to have read for English Lit over summer. He had a long trip ahead of himself so he might as well put it to good use and finally start reading it. It couldn’t really be that bad, could it?

 

45 minutes and 30 pages later, he had come to the conclusion that yes, it _was_ that bad. He groaned and snapped the book shut. Why did all school readings have to suck so much? He slumped back in his seat and closed his eyes, deciding to just screw it. He’d get the cliff notes at a later point. Maybe he’d ask Xabi to summarize everything for him. Xabi always did the readings.

Blindly, he fished his iPod out of his backpack but before he could plug his headphones in, the door to the compartment flew open with a loud bang.

“Dan!” someone exclaimed and Daniel cracked one eye open.

“Oh,” he said. “It’s you.”

“ _’It’s you’_? Did you hear that, Carra? We haven’t seen each other in ages and all he has to say is ‘It’s you’. Really feeling the love here, Dan.”

Daniel grinned. “Oh, I’m sorry, did I hurt your feelings, princess?”

With an indignant huff, Steven Gerrard flopped down on the seat in front of Daniel, pulling his best friend and constant companion Jamie Carragher into the seat next to him.

“You can shove your sarcasm right up where the sun doesn’t shine, Agger,” he said and Daniel threw his head back and laughed.

“Good to see you too, asshole,” he said. “I’d completely forgotten this was your stop.”

“Seriously, dude? We’ve only been taking this exact same train for years now.”

“Ugh, shut up, I was busy.”

“Yeah, sure looked like it when we came in,” Stevie smirked and Daniel snorted before throwing the book he had been trying to read at Stevie who sadly managed to catch it before it could hit him dead in the face.

“I was trying to read that. Emphasis on the ‘trying’.”

Carra made a sympathetic noise. “How far did you manage to get?”

“Uh, dunno, like maybe page 30 or something?”

“You’ve done better than Stevie then. _He_ gave up after half of that.”

“Eh, whatever,” Stevie said and rolled his eyes. “Xabi told me everything I need to know.”

“So he’s read it?” Daniel asked and Carra barked out a laugh.

“ _Of course_ Alonso’s read it. He reads everything. He’s through our assigned reading list before we even know which books _are_ on that list.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure he’s psychic or something.”

“It’s probably his mutant ability.”

The three boys paused for a second.

“You know,” Stevie said. “I kinda want to say that this sounds like one lame mutation but given how often he’s saved our collective asses with that…”

Daniel and Carra nodded.

“So you think he’ll help me out, too?” Daniel asked Stevie who shrugged.

“Sure, don’t see why not. You know Xabi. He’ll reprimand you and tell you to do your own reading but he’s a big softie at heart. Ask him nicely enough and he’ll do anything for you.”

“Man, we’d be so screwed without him…”

“Yeah, if it weren’t for him we’d have to read all those stupid books ourselves.”

The three boys looked at each other in horror and shuddered.

“We can never allow him to leave us,” Stevie said.

“Speaking of leaving,” Carra looked at Daniel. “How’s Finns?”

Daniel shrugged. “Eh, he’s okay. Bummed about not returning this year and kinda hating on everything Irish at the moment which is a bit stupid seeing as he _is_ Irish but he’s apparently settled in at his new school quite well.”

“That’s good. It’s too bad he had to leave. Now we have to find a new defender for the team.” Stevie sighed and Carra lightly hit him over the head.

“Yeah, because that’s what’s most important here.”

“What?” Stevie defended himself. “I’m just saying! You guys worked well together and now we have to find someone new and that’s just gonna screw with the team dynamic and everything was going so well last year…”

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this, Stevie, but not everything is about football.”

Stevie gasped in mock horror. “How dare you! Football’s not a matter of life and death, it’s –”

“- much more than that, yeah we know,” Carra finished the sentence for his best friend and turned to Daniel again.

“So, you’ve got any idea who your roommate is going to be now?”

Daniel shrugged. “No idea. As far as I know everyone’s already pretty matched up. Do you know if anyone else has left?”

The two other boys shook their heads and Daniel grinned.

“Hey, maybe I get a single room then!”

“Oh no, we wouldn’t want you to turn into a sad, lonely hermit, would we?” Stevie said quickly. “If it comes to that, I’ll sacrifice myself and take the single room. You can have Carra. Seriously. Take him. He snores.”

Carra snorted. “As if you’re an angel when you sleep. Maybe I snore but at least I don’t talk in my sleep.”

“I do not talk in my sleep!”

“Sure you do. _‘Oh Xabi, you’re so pretty. You have the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen. Please let me have your handsome Spanish babies.’_ ”

Daniel and Carra burst out laughing and Stevie huffed, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“I’m not gay! Xabi and I are just friend so shut the fuck up.”

But neither Daniel nor Carra were listening to their friend. Instead, Daniel gleefully watched as Carra started making exaggerated kissing noises before he slightly turned his back towards Daniel and wrapped his arms around himself, creating the illusion of making out with someone.

“I really, really hate you guys,” Stevie groaned. “I don’t know why I still put up with you.”

“Because you loooooooove us,” Daniel sing-songed and Carra turned around again.

“But not as much as he loves Xabi,” he crowed and Daniel resolved into another fit of laughter.

 

It was already dark when the train finally reached their destination. Daniel, Stevie and Carra had met up with several others of their friends along the way until it had become rather cramped in their compartment and by the time they arrived, Daniel’s sides hurt with laughter and he was reminded of why he loved his school so much. Sure, spending almost every single hour of each day with those idiots could get annoying and sometimes he wanted nothing more than to kill each and every one of them but most of the time it was just like it had been on the train. Lots of fun and just a bunch of guys mocking each other relentlessly. He really had missed all of his friends.

With the help of one of the guys, he managed to get his suitcase back down from the luggage rack and together, the group made their way towards the boarding school, deciding to walk the last few kilometres instead of having to pay for a cab.

Daniel was already brimming with nervous excitement. He couldn’t quite decide whether he was looking forward to finding out who his new roommate would be or not but he hoped it was someone he got along with. After all he’d have to share a room with that person for almost a whole year. He sighed and kicked at one of the stones littering the way. Maybe he had indeed gotten lucky enough to end up with a single room this year. Even if he hadn’t, there was no guarantee that he’d even meet his new roommate that night. Most students wouldn’t arrive before the next day, maybe his roommate was one of them. In any case, it didn’t really do him any good to think too much about this right now.

He shoved any and all speculations about who he could be sharing a room with from now on into the back of his mind and turned his attention back to his friends who were currently discussing the upcoming football season.

“I don’t think we’ll need to find many new players this year,” Stevie was telling Lucas Leiva, one of their midfielders. “Obviously, we’ll have to replace Finns, which – as I’ve already told Dan and Carra – is a real shame but it can’t really be helped. I just hope we can find someone as good as him, if not better. We may need a new midfielder as well but I still haven’t given up trying to convince Xabi to come back to the team. He says he wants to focus more on his academics now but we need him, he’s one of our best players! I’m sure I can talk him out of his ridiculous obsession with his grades. As if they weren’t already good enough…”

Lucas nodded in agreement. “What about Luis? Have you heard anything about that yet?”

Stevie sighed in annoyance which Daniel could only understand too well. Luis Suarez had been one of their strikers last year and he had been amazing for them. Unfortunately, Luis had something of a temper and, well, slight cannibalistic tendencies, it seemed. After biting an opponent a third time, Luis had been suspended from the team and they had been told that the faculty would have to discuss if they were ever going to let Luis back on the team.

“I don’t know any details yet,” Stevie said. “But I don’t think it’s looking good for us. Pretty sure they’re not gonna let him back on the team. So we’re probably gonna have to look for another striker as well. Studge is awesome but he can’t do it all alone. And hopefully, we won’t have to replace anyone else.”

“Think we can actually win it this year?” Daniel asked and Stevie looked at him with fierce determination.

“Absolutely. We could’ve already won it last year but we got unlucky with injuries. Our team is good, there’s absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t get this damn cup. Also, it’s my last year. If I have to leave this school without a trophy I’m gonna kill every single one of you.”

If Daniel hadn’t been so sure that Stevie was being completely and utterly serious with this, he would have laughed. As it was, the captain of their football team was not known to joke about their team’s successes. Or lack thereof. Every year their school had put together a great team with lots of potential to compete in the inter-school football tournament and every year it just hadn’t been quite enough to everyone’s frustrations. The last year had been particularly bitter. They’d almost had the trophy but thanks to an unfortunate red card that had robbed them of one of their most important players and some bad results in the last matches, it had, quite literally, slipped from their grasp.

“Don’t worry, Stevie,” he said lightly. “We’re gonna rock it this year. They’re not gonna know what hit them.”

“You better be right about that,” Stevie grumbled. “I _will_ cut you, don’t think I won’t.”

They rounded a corner and there it was. The Bill Shankly Boarding School for boys, Daniel’s home away from home.

“Ugh, finally,” he groaned, his arms already having gone slightly numb from dragging his suitcase along the way.

“Stop complaining, this is good practice,” Stevie said. “I’m gonna need you all in prime condition for this season.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever…” Daniel muttered. “As long as I don’t have to play football while carrying a suitcase that weighs _a ton_ , I’m gonna be just fine.”

 

They reached the school a few minutes later and were immediately greeted by Mary, their housekeeper.

“Boys,” she said warmly and quickly ushered them inside. “There you are. I was worried you had gotten lost.”

“We know the way, Mary, we have been here for a few years now, you know?” Stevie said but the way he rolled his eyes was undeniably fond even as Mary cuffed him over the back of his head.

“Don’t get smart with me now, Mr Gerrard. Or you might just find yourself without dessert tonight.”

Stevie’s face took on a horrified expression and Daniel elbowed him in the rips.

“That would probably be for the best anyway,” he quipped. “After all, you ‘need us all in prime condition for this season’, don’t you?”

Stevie glared at him. “I’ll show you ‘prime condition’…” he muttered and Daniel snorted.

“Ooooh, I’m scared. What you gonna do, Gerrard? Squash me to death after eating all those cookies?”

“Boys,” Mary reprimanded them. “Cut it out. It’s only the first day; you have enough time for that later. Now, take your things to your rooms, dinner’s going to be ready soon. Don’t be late!”

“Yes, Mary!” the boys chorused and dashed up the stairs to where their assigned bedrooms were waiting for them.

Daniel stopped in front of his room and turned to his friends who were already halfway past him.

“See you guys at dinner!” he called after them and turned the door handle. He pushed the door open and –

“Oh you have _got_ to be kidding me.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for your lovely comments, you have no idea how happy they made me. I thrive on comments. I will probably eventually reply to all of them, I've just been very busy with real life AND this NaNoWriMo (which is making me cry of despair on a regular basis and keeping me up awake at horrible hours) but even if I don't I want you all to know that every single comment, every kudos you leave and every hit I get means a hell of a lot to me.
> 
> Now, I hope I won't disappoint you all because I'm afraid the worst of the repetitions, random ramblings and other annoying unnecessary things is still to come. Yay, NaNoWriMo!
> 
> (And in case you're interested; despite all my complaining and cursing and general reluctance to keep writing while I could be catching up on watching "Arrow" instead, I am still going strong and currently at 15,118 words! *parties hard*)

The thing was, Daniel had been lying. Yes, Steve Finnan was his best friend. No, he hadn’t always been his best friend. Or well, he  _had_. But he hadn’t been the only one. Once upon a time, there had been  _him_ as well.

Martin Skrtel.

If Steve was the Ron to Daniel’s Harry, then Martin had been their Hermione. Or something. It was hard to think of a proper metaphor when  _Martin freaking Skrtel_ was standing right in front of him like something out of his worst nightmares.

The door fell close behind him with an ominous thud and the two boys stared at each other.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Daniel repeated. This could _not_ be happening. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

Martin cleared his throat, looking about as unhappy as Daniel felt himself.

“Well, it would seem like we’re roommates this year,” he said and Daniel shook his head.

“No fucking way,” he snapped. “This has got to be a mistake. I am _not_ going to be sharing a room with _you_ of all people.”

Martin snorted. “You think I’m keen on having to share a room with you?”

“Oh no no no no,” Daniel pointed one finger at Martin. “You,” he continued, poking the other boy in the chest. “You can fuck off _right now_. I don’t want you here.”

“I don’t really think we have a choice here.”

“I don’t care!” Daniel yelled and Martin slowly backed away from him.

“Listen, Daniel, just calm down for a second, okay? I’m sure we can talk about this and –”

“Shut the fuck up,” Daniel interrupted the other boy. “You have absolutely _no right_ to tell me to calm down and that we can ‘talk about this’. You’ve never wanted to talk about things before so why the hell should we start now, huh? Or wait, sorry, I forgot. Martin Skrtel only ever does things when he gets something out of them.”

“That’s really not fair,” Martin said, deflating slightly.

“Yeah? A lot of things aren’t fair, Skrtel. Don’t pretend that you’re better than me. You’re not.”

“Daniel…” Martin began but Daniel cut him off with an abrupt gesture.

“No,” he said. “I don’t want to do this. You and I have nothing to say to each other. Not anymore. I’m… I’m gonna go now. See if one of the guys will let me sleep on their floor or something. And tomorrow we’re gonna go and get this settled. I don’t care how we do it but I am not going to share a room with you.”

“I… Fine,” Martin mumbled and Daniel grabbed his suitcase again, storming out of the room without another glance at the other boy.

As soon as he had slammed the door shut behind himself, he dropped the suitcase with a heavy thud and leaned against the wall, running a weary hand over his face.

Sharing a room with Martin fucking Skrtel, this was just what he had needed. He had been doing so well with avoiding the other boy the past two years, he had been over this whole thing, damn it. And now, all of the defences he had built himself seemed to come crumbling down just like that. He made a choked off sound and let his head drop back against the wall, trying to compose himself. This was why he had been keeping his distance from Martin, because every confrontation just seemed to send him right back to where he had been two years ago.

“Dan?” someone called his name and he righted himself, quickly trying to school his face into a neutral expression. “Are you okay?”

He turned his head and looked at the boy who had opened the door to the bedroom in front of Daniel’s own room (which he shared with Martin oh God what was he going to _do_?) and was frowning in concern.

“Hey Xabi,” he greeted the young Spaniard, forcing himself to a tight smile. “I’m fine.”

Judging from the other boy’s expression, he didn’t believe a word of what Daniel had said. Not that he could blame him. He wouldn’t believe himself either.

“It’s nothing, really,” he tried again and while Xabi still looked at him sceptically, he thankfully seemed inclined to give the subject a rest.

“You want to come in?” he offered instead, nodding with his head into the direction of the room he had just stepped out of. “We could catch up a bit before dinner.”

This time, Daniel’s smile felt more genuine. “Sure, sounds nice.”

He followed the other boy into his room and sat down on the empty bed across from Xabi’s while the Spaniard shut the door behind him.

“Pepe not here yet?” he asked, bouncing on the mattress.

“No, he’s coming tomorrow,” Xabi replied and turned back to his open suitcase to continue unpacking.

“I’m surprised you’re already here,” Daniel said. “Don’t you usually arrive the day before classes start as well?”

“What? Oh yeah, I do. But we came back from Spain a bit earlier this year so I figured why not return here a day sooner?”

Daniel hummed in agreement. “So, Stevie tells me you want to quit the football team?”

Xabi sighed. “Don’t tell me he’s set you on my case as well. He’s been nagging me about this all summer long.”

Daniel shrugged. “Maybe he just doesn’t want to lose you.”

Xabi tensed up for a second and Daniel quickly continued. “We all don’t want to lose you. We need you. We’re probably going to be absolutely screwed without you, man. And we all want to win the trophy this year.”

“I know,” Xabi replied. “I know how important it is for Steven – for all of you. I… I’ll think about it, okay?”

“Sure. That’s all we’re asking for.”

For a while, Xabi continued unpacking in silence and Daniel lay back on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

“So,” Xabi finally started speaking again. “You gonna tell me why you were standing out in the hallway with your suitcase looking like someone killed your puppy or am I going to have to guess?”

“Don’t ever talk about someone killing puppies, Xabi. What a horrible thing to say,” Daniel murmured, trying to avoid the question but Xabi being Xabi was having none of it.

“Daniel,” he said quietly and Daniel groaned, grabbing the pillow and burying his face in it. He felt the bed dip next to him and a gentle hand removed the pillow from his face.

“Daniel, talk to me.”

“I…” Daniel began but broke off with a frustrated sound. “Can we not talk about it right now? Please?”

Xabi looked at him in contemplation but eventually seemed to find what he was looking for.

“Okay,” he nodded. “We’re not going to talk about it now. But you’re not getting out of this.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Daniel sighed. “Hey, Xabi?”

“Hmm?”

“Would it… I mean… Can I stay here? Just for tonight?”

Xabi’s expression softened. “Sure you can.”

“Thanks, man. I swear I’m gonna get out of your hair tomorrow but just for tonight… Thanks. Oh and by the way, you wouldn’t by any chance have done all our summer reading and would be willing to tell me all about it?”

 

By the time dinner was ready, Xabi had finished unpacking and had given Daniel a brief summary of the books he had been supposed to have read and the two of them were walking to the dining-hall together, casually talking about their summer.

“Jon wants to become a referee now,” Xabi told him with an amused smirk and Daniel pulled a face.

“Seriously? Doesn’t he know that no-one likes referees?”

“Oh, I think he does. But he wants to do something that no Alonso has ever done before. So, referee.”

Daniel snorted. “I’m pretty sure there are more things you guys have never done before. There really is no reason for anyone to ever want to become a ref.”

Xabi shrugged. “Well, someone has to do the job and –”

He was interrupted when Stevie and Carra caught up to them and Stevie beamed brightly at Xabi.

“Hey, Xabi,” he greeted the boy enthusiastically. “What are you already doing here? Did you have a great summer?”

Daniel caught Carra’s eyes and they smirked at each other, both thinking the same thing. For someone who claimed he wasn’t gay at all and did absolutely not have a gigantic crush on one Xabier Alonso Olano, Stevie seemed awfully gone on the guy. There were only two people who didn’t know about Stevie’s crush. Xabi and Stevie himself. But Daniel and Carra were sure they would realize it sooner or later. They had to. There was a betting pool.

“Hello Steven,” Xabi replied with a smile and yes, completely besotted. Both of them. It was sickening, really. My summer was good, thank you. I was actually just telling Daniel about it.”

“Wha- oh, Daniel. Hey!” Stevie turned to him, obviously only just realizing he was there at all and Daniel rolled his eyes. 100% straight, his ass. Or well, Xabi’s ass. “I didn’t see you there! Wait, are you guys sharing a room now? I thought you were going to room with Pepe?”

Stevie frowned at them and wow, there really was no need to be so jealous. Daniel had absolutely no interest in Xabi. At all.

“I am,” Xabi supplied. “And we’re not. Sharing a room, I mean. Daniel and I.”

Xabi blushed slightly and Daniel caught Carra pretending to be gagging out of the sight of the two other boys.

“Oh well, good. I mean not good per se just…”

Stevie trailed off and Carra groaned. “Let’s just go eat something before this gets even more awkward and embarrassing, yes?”

Daniel nodded quickly and the four of them entered the dining-hall, immediately steering towards their usual table.

“So, Xabi,” Stevie began as they sat down. “About the football team…”

Daniel tuned Stevie and instead let his gaze wander around the hall. A lot of students had already arrived at the school, mostly the older ones and everyone was talking over each other, regaling their most exciting summer exploits and Daniel barely suppressed a sigh. He really missed Finns. Speaking of Finns…

Daniel dug his mobile phone out of his pocket and sent a quick text message to his friend.

_‘arrived @ school, you’ll never guess who they assigned as my new roomie >_<’_

He put the phone away again and this time, his eyes were immediately drawn to a table in the far corner where _he_ sat.

Martin was still alone and he glared moodily at his plate and Daniel rolled his eyes. What the hell did Martin have to complain about? He had been the one to decide that they couldn’t be friends anymore. God, Daniel hated the asshole, he –

“Earth to Daniel Agger, can you hear us?”

Stevie waved his hand repeatedly in front of Daniel’s face until Daniel batted it away.

“You back with us, Dan?” he smirked.

“Yeah, sorry, I was distracted,” he muttered and Stevie lightly kicked his leg under the table.

“We noticed,” he said drily, wincing as Daniel kicked back a little less lightly.

“What were you guys talking about?”

“We wanted to know who you ended up with as a roommate. Xabi said that you’re crashing at his tonight but didn’t want to tell him why.”

Daniel turned to glare at the young Spaniard who looked at him apologetically and mouthed ‘Sorry’ at him. Daniel didn’t believe him one bit. Xabi didn’t just let things like that slip. He had told Stevie and Carra about it completely on purpose because he knew that while Daniel could evade _his_ questions, he couldn’t go up against the combined force of Xabi, Stevie and Carra. The dirty little traitor.

“Fine!” he exclaimed. “I’ll tell you. You’re a right evil bastard, you know that, Xabi, right?”

Xabi smiled beatifically and Daniel would have hit his head against the table if the plate hadn’t been in the way.

“It’s Martin,” he mumbled instead.

“I’m sorry, what?” Stevie asked confused, not having understood a single word of what Daniel had been saying.

“It’s Martin,” Daniel repeated a little bit louder. “Martin Skrtel. They made Martin motherfucking Skrtel my new roommate.”

Xabi gasped, Stevie’s mouth dropped open and Carra’s eyebrows rose so high they almost merged with his hair.

“ _What_?” the three boys said almost in unison and Daniel nodded darkly.

“Yep. It’s him.”

“But why?” Stevie asked horrified and Daniel shrugged.

“I have no idea.”

“Dude, that’s not cool. They can’t do that!”

“That’s what I said. I’m gonna go and take it up with administration tomorrow. I’m not sharing a room with that asshole.”

Xabi frowned at him, worrying his lip. “I’m not sure that’s going to work, Dan,” he finally said. “I mean, you usually only get to switch rooms if you have a really good reason for it.”

Daniel bristled at that and opened his mouth to protest but Xabi quickly held up a hand to silence him.

“I’m not saying that you d _on’t_ have a good reason,” he placated. “What I’m saying is, that after all this time you still haven’t told anyone what that reason _is_.”

Daniel closed his mouth and sighed. Xabi was right. He really had never told anyone what had happened between him and Martin. Anyone except Finns. Finns knew everything. But Daniel didn’t w _ant_ anyone else to know. He liked it just fine the way it was.

“Yeah, what did happen?” Stevie prodded but Daniel shook his head.

“Nope, I’m still not telling. This is between me and Martin and no-one else. So leave it.”

“If you’re not going to tell anyone, I don’t see why they would let you switch rooms,” Xabi pointed out and Daniel shrugged.

“I’m gonna convince them somehow. They _have_ to let me switch!”

 

To be honest, Daniel wasn’t even half as optimistic about his chances for a new roommate as he had tried to make his friends believe during dinner.

Later that night, he was lying in Pepe’s bed, staring into the darkness while Xabi was already sleeping peacefully in the other bed. A tiny and very, very selfish part of him thought about how great it would be if Pepe didn’t come back to the school for whatever reason. He liked Pepe, he did, but it would make things so much easier for him if he could just permanently take over the other boy’s bed.

His mobile, which was sitting on the bedside cabinet next to him, lit up, alerting him to a new text message and he quickly grabbed it. He squinted against the light for a few seconds until his eyes had adjusted to the sudden shift in brightness and he read what Finns had sent him.

_‘the cookie monster? darth vader? BATMAN?’_

Daniel quickly covered his mouth with his hand to smother his laughter before he could wake up Xabi and he didn’t waste much time writing back.

_‘ha i wish. honestly anyone would be better than who i have to deal with’_

_‘so if not batman who is it?’_

_‘martin skrtel’_

Daniel had to wait several minutes until he finally got a reply from his best friend.

_‘NO FUCKING WAY!!!!!!!!!’_

_‘yes fucking way. and don’t you think you’re missing a few exclamation marks? this is worth at least 10.’_

_‘I DON’T BELIEVE IT WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!! (there 10 excl marks happy?)’_

_‘not really’_

_‘man this sucks. how did that happen?’_

_‘no clue & don’t care. i just want him gone. do you think batman has anything against asshole roommates?’_

_‘i’m sure he does. if not he has enough money to pay someone to get rid of him’_

_‘dude batman would never hire an assassin’_

_‘of course he wouldn’t. i’m not saying we kill martin. just drop him off at antarctica or something and conveniently forget about him.’_

_‘ would we really need batman for that?’_

_‘dunno. he does have the private jet to take him… also it’s batman. idc if we’d actually need him for that as long as i get to spend some time with him.’_

_‘true’_

_‘real talk tho do you need me to come back and kick his ass?’_

_‘i always need you to come back. but nah i got it covered. thanks for the offer tho who needs batman when i have you?’_

_‘ikr? now it’s late i should let you sleep. ttyl?’_

_‘sure. thanks bat-finns.’_

_‘sleep tight, robin’_

_‘fuck u’_

Daniel locked his phone and put it away, smiling slightly. Talking to Steve always made him feel better. If only Finns hadn’t left the school; then he wouldn’t have this problem in the first place. He sighed and turned around, facing the wall. There was really no sense in wracking his head about this now. First sleep and then, tomorrow, he could take care of everything. Soon this would be nothing but a distant memory while he went back to happily ignoring Martin Skrtel’s very existence just like he had done before. It was going to be a piece of cake.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thanks for all the comments and kudos, I love you all. I'm not gonna keep talking for long this time, I just wanted to point out that my entire knowledge of boarding school stems from obsessively reading Harry Potter and from a German book series called 'Hanni und Nanni' so I apologise for any inaccuracies.   
> You may now wonder, why the hell is she writing a Boarding School AU if she has no experience with things like that and the answer simply is: I am an idiot and like to make things more complicated and diffifult for myself. :)  
> That's it from me, on to the hopefully more interesting stuff!

When Daniel woke up that morning, Xabi was already awake, typing away on his laptop.

At Daniel’s disgruntled groan, he looked up and smiled at him and seriously? It was too damn early for anyone to be smiling at Daniel.

“Oh, you’re awake,” Xabi said. “Good morning.”

Daniel’s only reply was an irritated grunt and he turned around to face the wall, tugging the sheet over his face. Ah, blissful darkness.

Through the cover of the sheet, he could hear Xabi chuckle.

“Not a morning person, eh?” The Spaniard’s question was muffled and Daniel didn’t bother to deign it with an answer. Instead he snuggled further into his pillow and was already halfway asleep again when someone had the audacity to poke him.

“Come on, Daniel,” Xabi said. “Get up.”

Maybe, if Daniel just ignored him, he would go away and Daniel could continue sleeping in peace.

“Daniel…”

“Go ‘way,” he mumbled, hugging the pillow tighter. No-one would come between him and his new best friends, the pillow and the blanket. He was pretty sure it was true love.

He could hear Xabi sigh and then… Then that devious, mean Spaniard was pulling on his beloved blanket and _how dare he_ break up their happy little threesome?

“Noooooooooo,” Daniel garbled and clung desperately to the blanket.

Then, with a last sharp tug, Xabi sent him and the blanket sprawling onto the floor and Daniel lay there, tangled up in the duvet, blinking owlishly up and Xabi who was standing above him, arms crossed.

“Why?” Daniel managed to get out brokenly and Xabi rolled his eyes.

“Have you always been so grumpy in the mornings?” he huffed while Daniel struggled to get up, almost tripping himself with the blanket still wrapped around his legs several times.

“You’re evil,” he muttered. “You always pretend you’re so nice but you’re not. You’re the devil himself, admit it.”

“Oh so you a _re_ able to form complete sentences? Good for you!”

Daniel glared though he was pretty sure the whole effect was ruined by the fact that he could still barely keep his eyes open and that his hair was sticking up in all directions known to man and probably even a few directions _not_ known to man. He really, really hated mornings.

“Why are you so sarcastic?” he mumbled. “It’s too early for sarcasm.”

“Come on,” Xabi said, choosing to ignore that last comment. “Go get a shower and then we’re going down for breakfast.”

“Meh,” Daniel replied, staring longingly at the bed. Their relationship and been brief but wonderful.

“They have coffee downstairs,” Xabi coaxed and okay, coffee did sound good. In fact, it sounded so good he might even be willing to forget all about the bed and elope with the coffee. This whole thing with the bed and been nothing but a short fling anyway.

“Fine,” he groaned and grabbed his towel and his sponge bag. For coffee, he could brave the shower. For coffee, he could do anything.

He glanced at the bed. “I’m sorry,” he said. “But we both knew this couldn’t last.”

 

40 minutes and a very long, very hot shower later, Daniel returned to the bedroom feeling a lot more awake than he had before. Why had he ever been against taking a shower? Showers were good, showers were your friend.

Xabi wasn’t alone when he opened the door, Stevie was already sitting on the bed that had, for a short while at least, been everything Daniel had ever wanted in life and the two of them looked up at him when he entered.

“And Grumpy Cat emerges!” Stevie crowed gleefully and Daniel flipped him off. He might be feeling better after that shower but he still hadn’t had his coffee.

“What are _you_ doing here?” he asked only slightly spiteful. “Couldn’t stand to be separated from your boyfriend any longer?”

As if on cue, both Stevie and Xabi blushed and that was interesting, Daniel had never really seen Stevie blush before. He looked ridiculous.

“Shut up, asshole,” Stevie muttered, looking anywhere but at Xabi.

“Yeah, whatever… So, there was some talk about coffee?”

Stevie and Xabi jumped up, their eagerness to get away from the suddenly awkward atmosphere obvious by the relief on their faces. Daniel supposed that he should feel bad about making both of them feel so uncomfortable but then again, Xabi _had_ cruelly forced him to abandon sleep and no-one had ever claimed that Daniel wasn’t at least a bit petty and vengeful. There were worse things he could be.

He could, for example, be Martin Skrtel.

Daniel’s newly appointed roommate was coming out of their room at the same time as Daniel, Xabi and Stevie left Xabi’s room and for a second, they all stared at each other awkwardly, no-one knowing what to say. Then Martin quickly averted his eyes and dashed away, leaving them behind. It was too late though. Any chance Daniel had had at a good mood was suddenly gone as he remembered just why he had spent the night in Xabi’s Den of Evil Morning Cheer, trademarked and patented.

“Well, that wasn’t weird at all,” Stevie said and Daniel groaned.

“Somehow, I had hoped that when I woke up this morning this would have just been a very bad dream and he would have been gone.”

“Maybe you should just try to talk to him,” Xabi suggested and Daniel turned to stare incredulously at him.

“Talk to him? Xabi, we are so past talking it’s not even funny anymore. We _tried_ talking but apparently, some assholes just remain assholes, no matter what you say.”

“But you used to be such close friends.”

“Yeah, well, things change. Shit happens. We used to be friends, now we’re not anymore. Life goes on, no need to dwell on it.”

“Yes, but –”

“Seriously, Xabi, stop it. I’ve told you before, there’s nothing to talk about. Whatever kind of friendship Martin and I ever had, it’s gone and I’m not particularly keen on getting it back. So I’m going to administration after breakfast and we can go back to never talking about this whole thing ever again just like we did before.”

Out of the corner of his eyes, Daniel could see Xabi and Stevie exchanging a worried glance but he couldn’t bring himself to care. They didn’t know what had happened two years ago and Daniel was more than happy about that. The less people knew, the better it was. It was none of their business anyway and Daniel didn’t get why they were suddenly so interested in that particular subject when they had been content to ignore it for so long. So what if he was currently stuck with Martin as his roommate? It didn’t change anything. Not for him.

 

Turned out, getting administration to do something about his roommate situation, was _not_ a piece of cake after all.

“What do you mean, ‘No’?” Daniel stared indignantly at Mr Rodgers, head of administration, his mouth wide agape.

“Mr Agger,” Mr Rodgers sighed. “If we gave in every time a student comes here and asks for a room change, everything would be in chaos.”

“But… But this is different!” Daniel spluttered and Mr Rodgers raised one single eyebrow. If Daniel hadn’t been so angry, he would have been impressed.

“Is that so?” Mr Rodgers asked and Daniel clenched and unclenched his fist several times, trying to remain as calm as possible. This discussion was getting him nowhere.

After he had finished breakfast, he had immediately made his way to talk to administration to finally get Martin removed as his roommate but now, after forcing him to wait a good half an hour until he could finally speak to a responsible person, all they had to offer him was a freaking ‘No’. What the hell was wrong with those people?

“Yes, it is so,” he replied frostily but Mr Rodgers remained unimpressed.

“Then please, enlighten me, Mr Agger. How is your situation different to that of the countless other students who have stood in this office and demanded the same thing?”

Daniel opened his mouth to say something but closed it again.

“It just is,” he offered.

“Ah, I see. In that case, Mr Agger, the answer is still no.”

“But –”

“No buts. Mr Skrtel is your roommate and will stay that way. I’m sorry if you have a problem with that, Mr Agger, but unless you don’t come to me with a valid reason as to why I should assign you a new roommate, this is just how it is and that is my last word.”

Daniel stood stock-still for a few moments, fuming silently.

“Fine,” he bit out. “Thank you for your time.”

Without letting Mr Rodgers get in another word, he left the office in a huff and found Xabi and Stevie waiting for him outside, together with Carra who had apparently joined them at some point after Daniel had left them behind at the breakfast table.

“I’m guessing it didn’t go well?” Carra said and Daniel stormed past him.

“No shit, Captain Obvious,” he snapped and continued on his way, not caring if his friends followed him or not.

After a few more steps, he stopped short and took a deep breath, his anger dissipating slowly. He turned around, facing the other three boys who stood a few paces away from him.

“It’s just not fair,” he said. “It’s not like this is my fault. _He’s_ the one who started it. He didn’t want to be friends anymore! He _told_ me. He told me to stay away from him and I _did_. And now we have to share a room and he hates me and I hate _him_ but apparently that’s not a good enough reason! It’s just. not. fair.”

Daniel deflated, breathing heavily and Xabi put a hand on his shoulder.

“Come on,” he said. “You can stay with us for the rest of the day. You only have to go into your room to sleep there, any other time you are more than welcome to hide out in any of our rooms.”

Stevie and Carra nodded and Daniel managed a small smile.

“Thanks, guys. You’re great.”

“Whatever,” Carra snorted. “Don’t get all mushy on us now, Agger. It doesn’t suit you.”

Daniel punched the other boy’s arm lightly. “Oh I’m so sorry, Carra,” he said. “I’d forgotten you were allergic to emotions.”

“Your _mum_ is allergic to emotions,” Carra retorted and Daniel laughed.

“Wow, Carra, when did you get so witty? Did you practice it in front of a mirror?”

They continued bickering on their way back to Xabi’s room and Daniel was glad that he had his friends to distract him from everything else. He really had no idea what he would do if he didn’t have them; he’d be completely and utterly lost. He had always been able to rely on them, even back when things between him and Martin had gone south. They had been there for him, had had his back the entire time and Daniel knew he could count himself lucky to be part of this group of friends. Even with Finns, his best friend, gone, he still had more than enough people left to fall back on, even if that meant harbouring him in their rooms because he was hiding from his dick of a roommate.

 

“So when are you planning on holding the try-outs for the football team?” Carra asked Stevie before unceremoniously flopping down onto the bed Daniel still wished he could call his own and Stevie shrugged before sitting down as well.

“As soon as possible,” Stevie replied and Daniel could barely hide his massive grin when he noticed that Stevie had chosen the one spot closest to Xabi to seat himself. Completely accidentally, he was sure. After all, Stevie was straight; at least that was what the other boy was still telling himself.

“We’re gonna have to wait and see how the whole Luis situation plays out first because I don’t want to have to hold separate try-outs for the strikers and the defenders but I’m hoping we can get it sorted out next week and start training the week after that.”

“No try-outs for midfielders?” Daniel asked with a side-glance at Xabi.

“Of course not,” Stevie huffed. “We won’t need one, Xabi’s not gonna leave us, is he?”

Xabi held up his hands defensively. “I haven’t agreed to anything.”

“Yeah, but you also haven’t said ‘No’ yet,” Stevie pointed out, elbowing the young Spaniard in the rips and Xabi looked at Daniel and Carra with an exasperated expression.

“It’s really hard to deny him anything when he turns his puppy eyes on you,” he explained and Carra nodded incredulously.

“Sure,” he drawled. “I totally get it. Man, I hate it when he does the puppy eyes. Don’t you, Dan?”

“Totally,” Daniel agreed and either Stevie and Xabi hadn’t noticed their sarcasm or they simply chose to ignore it. Either way, he and Carra shared a meaningful look and Daniel snickered when he caught Carra mouthing the word ‘gay’ at him.

It was then that the door flew open with a loud and resounding bang and in strolled Pepe Reina, Xabi’s roommate.

“’Sup, bitches!” Pepe exclaimed, pushing the sunglasses that had been perching on his nose up on his bald head and dropping his bags right where he was standing. “Don’t tell me you started the party without me. That would be just plain rude.”

He walked over to the bed on which Daniel and Carra were sitting and threw himself onto it, sprawling halfway on top of them.

Carra groaned in annoyance and pushed at Pepe, trying to shove the other boy off of him but to no avail. Pepe stubbornly remained right where he was, smirking up at them.

“Hey, Pepe,” Xabi greeted his friend with a smile and Pepe turned his head to face him.

“’Hey, Pepe’? Is that all I get after we have been apart for so long? No ‘Hey, Pepe, looking good!’ or ‘Hey, Pepe, how was your summer?’”

“Please,” Daniel said with a snort. “We follow you on Twitter, we know exactly how your summer was.”

“In fact, I’m pretty sure we know way more about how your summer was than we ever wanted to know,” Stevie added.

“Not all of us can be as boring as you, Mr Spent-all-my-summer-pouring-over-my-playbook-like-the-loser-I-am.”

“At least I can’t get any STDs from my playbook,” Stevie shot back and Pepe put a hand over his heart, looking at Stevie in mock hurt.

“You wound me so, Steven. It’s like you don’t love me anymore. And besides, I, my friends, am in love. Deeply, desperately in love with the most perfect human being to have ever walked this earth.”

“Who, yourself?” Carra grunted as he finally succeeded in pushing Pepe off the bed.

“Alright, the second most perfect human being to have walked this earth,” Pepe amended from where he was now sprawled on the floor. “But a very close second.”

“’TheAmazingArbeloa’?” Xabi asked, looking up from his phone with raised eyebrows.

“Yes!” Pepe exclaimed with a dreamy sigh. “He’s perfect. Amazing. Beautiful.”

“And you’ve never actually met him, have you?”

“Well, no,” Pepe admitted. “But we’ve talked. We’ve chatted. I’ve seen him on Skype. Online friends are just as real as the ones you meet in real life.”

Daniel had gotten his phone out as well and pulled up Pepe’s Twitter feed. And sure enough, pretty much all recent tweets were addressed to a certain ‘TheAmazingArbeloa’ and…

“Wow, that really is a lot of, uh, graphic flirting.”

Carra, who had looked over his shoulder and read some of the tweets with him, stared at Pepe with wide eyes. “Dude, you can’t write shit like that on the internet.”

“I can and I do,” Pepe said with a shrug.

“At least the guy’s ego seems to be about as big as yours,” Stevie replied drily.

“We can’t help it if we’re both so incredibly awesome. I see no reason to hide it.”

“Dear Lord, this really already sounds like a match made in heaven.”

“Our children will be adorable,” Pepe agreed and with a snort, Carra threw a pillow at his head.

“Dude, don’t you think you should actually meet the guy before you start picking the names for your children?”

“Oh, we’ve already done that. Alba Grecia if it’s a girl, Luca Thiago for a boy.”

Daniel and the three other boys stared at Pepe completely  flabbergasted and Pepe started laughing.

“Oh my God, guys, you should see your _faces_ ,” he wheezed. “Relax! We’re not gonna elope and get married by Elvis. At least not yet.”

“So what, you guys are serious?” Stevie asked, sounding mildly fascinated and Pepe shrugged.

“Yeah, kinda. He’s super cool and really hot and he makes me laugh which is a lot more than can be said for other people. He lives in Madrid though, which _sucks_. He also likes Real Madrid which sucks even more. Seriously, I’d almost say that he’s got no taste but he likes me so…”

Daniel shook his head with a fond and slightly exasperated smile. “Only you would come back from summer break with an online boyfriend.”

“I’m hip like that,” Pepe said and winked at Daniel before pushing his sunglasses back down on his nose. “Now tell me, what have you losers been up to?”

“Nothing as exciting as you, obviously,” Stevie replied and Pepe rolled his eyes.

“ _Obviously_. You guys will never be able to reach my level. You’re all beneath me. Except for maybe Xabi. Xabi and I are sharing a room so he’s cool by association.” Pepe held out a fist for Xabi to bump but Xabi only eyed it unperturbed.

“Come on,” Pepe whined, shaking his fist slightly. “Don’t leave a dude hanging, man.”

With a put-upon sigh, Xabi reached out and bumped Pepe’s fist with his own.

“I don’t know why I hang out with you,” he muttered darkly as Pepe pulled his fist away, miming an explosion as he went.

“Anyway,” Pepe continued, ignoring Xabi’s comment. “You really want to tell me absolutely nothing interesting has happened? Ugh, I am so disappointed in every single one of you. What would we even talk about if my life was as boring as yours?”

“Oh!” Stevie piped up. “Daniel has to share his room with Martin Skrtel now!”

Pepe’s eyes went wide at that and he sat up while Daniel groaned and buried his face in his hands.

“Do you have to keep reminding me? I’m trying to be in denial over here!”

“Wait, seriously?” Pepe said, obviously not willing to just let it go. “I thought you guys couldn’t stand each other anymore?”

“We _can’t_ ,” Daniel moaned. “But apparently no-one cares about that. I tried getting Mr Rodgers to let me switch rooms but he was all ‘No, Mr Agger’ and ‘If we make an exception for you everyone will want to swap rooms’ and ‘Deal with it, Mr Agger’. What a dick.”

“Huh,” Pepe mused, looking intently at the wall. “That’s weird.”

“Weird? It’s mean!”

“No, I don’t mean that they won’t let you switch rooms,” Pepe explained. “I mean that you’re sharing with Martin in the first place.”

Daniel frowned and one look at Stevie, Carra and Xabi told him, that they also had no clue what Pepe was talking about.

“What’s so weird about that?” he finally asked. “I didn’t have a roomie because Finns left and he probably didn’t have one because he’s an asshole and –”

“No,” Pepe interrupted him. “He _did_ have a roommate. I know for a fact that he and Andriy Voronin were set to share a room; Andriy told me before the summer break. So why aren’t they sharing one? Why is Martin your roommate now?”

Daniel stared at Pepe. Why indeed.

“It was probably just a mix up, or something,” he finally said. “These things happen.”

It was the only explanation that made sense. He knew Martin and Andriy were friends so there was no reason for them not to share a room. Martin was probably just as pissed about suddenly having to put up with Daniel on a daily basis now. Or well, he most likely wasn’t _as_ pissed, seeing as Daniel wasn’t the great, big asshole in the room. That honour went to Martin.

Pepe shrugged. “Maybe.”

“What else could it be?”

“Dunno, you tell me.”

“What, you think he wanted to be my roomie so we could what? Talk about our feelings and braid each other’s hair?” Daniel let out a derisive snort. That couldn’t be it, could it? Martin hadn’t really wanted to share a room with him out of a misguided attempt at making things right between them; he’d have to pretty stupid to do that. And yes, Martin _was_ stupid but… No. It had to have been a mistake on administration’s part. And now they didn’t want to change it back because that would mean admitting to the problem and so Daniel was stuck with Martin until either of them killed the other. Anything else simply wasn’t possible.

“Maybe that’s exactly what he wants to do,” Carra’s voice dragged him out of his thoughts. “In any case, better watch out. If Martin starts growing his hair out, I’d run.”

They dropped the subject after that but Daniel couldn’t quite shake the confusion he felt. It remained as a niggling thought in the back of his mind for the rest of the day until he looked at his watch and –

“Damn it,” he cursed. “It’s getting late. I should… I should probably…”

He sighed and jerked his head in the direction of the door and received sympathetic looks from his friends.

“Yeah,” Carra said and got up on his feet. “Come on, we should probably all go.”

He nudged Stevie with his foot and reluctantly, the other boy got up from his seat next to Xabi.

“Night, Xabi,” he said, smiling at the young Spaniard.

“Goodnight, Stevie,” Xabi replied and Stevie walked towards the door.

“Yeah, I don’t want you to have a good night as well, Gerrard!” Pepe yelled and threw a pillow after Stevie. “Seriously, just because I’m not the hot Spaniard of your wildest, wettest dreams doesn’t mean you have to be rude.”

“Fuck you, Pepe,” Stevie glared and stalked out of the room.

“Love you, too, Gerrard!” Pepe called and snickered under the disapproving glance of Xabi. “Aww, come on, Xabs, I’m only teasing. Or am I? I guess we’ll never know…”

“Night, guys,” Daniel said glumly. He really didn’t want to leave the safe haven that was Xabi and Pepe’s room behind. He didn’t want to have to go back to Martin.

“Cheer up, Dan,” Carra said and with a last wave at Xabi and Pepe, he dragged Daniel out of the room, closing the door behind them. “I’m sure it won’t be that bad.”

“That’s easy for you to say…” Daniel muttered and Carra thumped his back heartily.

“Yes, it is. Now grow some fucking balls and deal with it.”

With that, Carra walked off and left Daniel standing alone in the hallway, facing what was his certain doom.

 

Daniel stood in front of the door of his bedroom, his arms crossed in front of his chest and he was glaring at the door handle as if it had personally offended him. He shook his head and sighed. Standing in front of his own door and doing nothing for yet another five minutes wouldn’t really help his situation. Also, he was starting to get weird looks from the other students who were passing him on their way to their bedrooms or the bathrooms.

He closed his eyes for a second to brace himself, then he reached out and opened the door.

Martin was there. Of course he was there, where else would he be?

At Daniel’s entrance, he looked up from the book he had been reading (one of their assigned summer readings, what a pretentious asshole) and his eyes widened slightly.

“Oh,” he said. “You’re back.”

Daniel made a derisive noise. “Obviously.”

“So I guess they didn’t allow the room change?”

“Obviously.”

“Sorry,” Martin offered and Daniel huffed before heaving his suitcase on the unoccupied bed.

“Yeah, whatever,” he sneered and Martin remained blissfully quiet for a few minutes but of course it couldn’t last. That would have been too good to be true.

“Are you okay with the bed?” Martin asked. “I’m sorry, I just picked this one but if you want to –”

“No,” Daniel interrupted him. “This bed is fine. Well, it’s not but your bed isn’t any better. You know which bed I’d prefer? One that is far, far away from here.”

“Daniel, I’m sorry, I –”

“Stop!” Daniel yelled. “Just… stop it. Stop pretending you’re such a nice and good guy. We both know it’s not true so really, this is only embarrassing for you.”

Martin’s mouth snapped shut and he looked away from Daniel. “I know,” he said quietly. “I know I’m not a nice guy and I know I screwed up but can we please –”

“No,” Daniel said sharply, not intending to let Martin finish his sentence. He didn’t want to hear it. “You know, in all honesty I’m surprised that y _ou’re_ not the one running in Rodgers’ door, begging for a different roommate. You made it pretty clear that you didn’t want to have anything to do with me anymore, not to mention share a space with me. I would have thought that this would be your worst nightmare, having to share a room with someone like me.”

Martin flushed, the bright red a stark contrast to his usual pale skin. “That was years ago,” he said hoarsely. “I… I really _am_ sorry.”

“Sometimes,” Daniel replied coldly. “Sorry just isn’t going to cut it, Martin. You missed your chance. By a long shot.”

“Fine. Okay,” Martin mumbled. “I’ll try to stay out of your way. I… I’m gonna go to the bathroom, get ready for bed so… Yeah.”

Martin fled the room and Daniel sank down on his bed, breath leaving his lungs in a rush. He leaned back against the wall and stared blankly up at the ceiling.

Why the hell did Martin have to do this? Act like he hadn’t done anything wrong, like he was the victim and Daniel was the asshole by not accepting his apology. It wasn’t fair. Two years ago, Martin couldn’t even bear to look at him and now, all of a sudden, he wanted to be best friends again? That was not going to happen; no matter how often Martin said he was sorry.

Daniel didn’t believe him anyway. He didn’t. He had no idea what Martin’s angle was but he wasn’t going to fall for it. He had made the mistake of believing that Martin was his friend once, he was not about to make it again. He dragged a weary hand over his face, suddenly feeling incredibly tired and exhausted. How was he going to make it through a whole year if he had to face this - face _Martin_ \- each and every day? What had he ever done to deserve this? He must’ve been a real asshole in a previous life for karma to come back and bite him in the ass so bad.

“Ugh, get a grip, Agger,” he muttered to himself and struggled up off the bed. “You can totally do this. You’re not going to let Martin motherfucking Skrtel ruin your last year. That’s probably what the bastard wants. Ha, not gonna give him that satisfaction…”

He spent the next few minutes passive-aggressively unpacking his suitcase, chucking his clothes into his assigned wardrobe space, not caring a bit whether everything got crumpled or not.

Martin quietly re-entered the room just as Daniel was slamming the suitcase shut and shoving it unceremoniously beneath his bed.

He grabbed his toiletries and stormed past Martin without sparing the boy as much as a single look.

When he returned from the bathrooms, Martin was already lying in his bed, facing away from him and Daniel turned off the lights without any further comment before climbing into his own bed, turning his back to Martin as well.

This was going to be a long, long year.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, this is a long one! And the drama! Oh, the drama... (Should I put a warning for tissues here? Idk, I mean I cried but I cry at everything so you're probably good to go...)
> 
> Anyway, I'll leave you to it without much talking but if you do wanna come and talk to me, follow me on Tumblr (http://thesuperlambanana.tumblr.com/) or on Twitter (https://twitter.com/Larojalfc)! Take part in my boring, uneventful life! Yay!

Martin was already gone when Daniel cracked his eyes open the next morning. He whined and glared at his alarm as if it had personally offended him. Which, to be honest, it had.

“Shut up,” he moaned and took refuge under his pillow, trying to block out the sun and the ringing of the alarm. He hated morning. So much. Why did mornings even have to be a thing?

He sighed deeply and rolled over in his bed, spending the next few seconds groping about his bedside table in a desperate attempt to locate his alarm clock and turn it the hell off.

“I hate you,” he told the clock after he had finally found it and hit the snooze button repeatedly. “You suck. So much.”

He sat up and blinked sleepily over to the bed Martin had occupied the night before. He was glad that the other boy was nowhere to be seen; he already didn’t want to deal with Martin at any other time of the day and the mornings could only be worse. They were already bad enough without Martin adding to the mix.

Daniel’s first attempt in getting up ended with him almost faceplanting on the floor, his legs having gotten tangled up in his blanket and he cursed while he fought the blanket off.

“Burn it,” he muttered angrily, glaring at the offending item. “Burn it with fire.”

He gave one last powerful kick and finally, he was free of the blanket.

“Ha, fuck you,” he said smugly. “Who’s the superior being now, huh?”

With one last triumphant look at the sad lump of blanket he had defeated, he got dressed and sluggishly made his way to the dining hall where his friends were already eating breakfast at their usual table.

Daniel dropped into the seat across from Stevie and stared forlornly at the table.

“Coffee?” he asked sadly and Stevie snorted.

“Good morning to you too, Dan.”

Next to Stevie, Carra shook his head, looking amused. “One would think he’d gotten used to the early mornings by now.”

“I swear he’s only getting worse with each year that passes.”

Daniel wasn’t listening to them, he was still too busy silently lamenting the absence of a mug of coffee in front of him. Finns had always given him coffee. He missed Finns.

 He got his mobile phone out and quickly shot off a text message.

_‘i miss u’_ it read. _‘there’s no coffee’_

He forced himself to get up and get some coffee himself and by the time he was back at the table and had gulped down half of the coffee, Finns had replied.

_‘i’m hurt, you only love me for giving you coffee’_

_‘tru’_ he replied, the coffee finally working to gradually wake him up.

_‘ that’s okay, everyone knows i only love you for your mum’s cookies’_

_‘i only love myself for mum’s cookies’_

Daniel took another sip and looked up to find Stevie and Carra staring at him.

“What?” he asked defensively.

“Nothing,” Carra replied. “Just insulted that you rather sit here and text Finns instead of talking to us, is all.”

Daniel rolled his eyes. “It’s not my fault that Finns is infinitely cooler than you guys. He always brought me coffee. You don’t. If you want to be the first ones I talk to in the morning, bring me coffee.”

“Yeah… no,” Stevie scoffed. “Go back to texting Finns.”

“Alright,” Daniel shrugged and turned his attention back to his mobile phone where a new text message was already waiting for him.

_‘how was the first night w/ m?’_

_‘neither of us is dead yet. at least i think so. i haven’t actually seen him yet this morning’_

He frowned and let his gaze wander over the crowd of students assembled in the dining hall. A few tables over, Daniel could see Andriy Voronin and the other guys Martin usually hung out with but Martin himself was nowhere to be seen. Which was weird. Martin hadn’t been in their room anymore when Daniel had gotten up but where had he gone if not to breakfast?

His text message alert interrupted that particular train of thoughts.

_‘maybe you killed him in your sleep and got rid of the corpse?’_

Daniel snorted. _‘if only i were so lucky…’_

_‘i’m not gonna visit you in jail. anyway, gotta go. school’s starting. ttyl’_

Daniel put his phone away and drank the last of his coffee.

“So have you guys seen Martin yet?” he asked the other boys at his table and Stevie leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms.

“Oh, so now we’re cool enough to talk to?” he teased. “Even without bringing you coffee?”

“Finns had to go,” Daniel said as way of explanation. “So no need to pride yourself on this. So, have you seen him?”

“What, you’re suddenly BFFs again now?” Carra asked, his eyebrows raised. “First you don’t want anything to do with the guy and now you spend one night in the same room as him and suddenly you want to know where he is?”

Daniel rolled his eyes. “We’re _not_ BFFs or anything. I was just wondering. He was already gone when I woke up but he isn’t here. I’m just curious; I’d rather know what he’s up to. Youknow how it is, know thy enemy.”

“Now that you mention it,” Xabi said with a frown. “I did see him earlier. He actually came down only a few minutes after me.”

Daniel’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. Xabi was usually the first one down in the dining hall and by ‘the first one’ he meant he got up at an absolutely abysmal and inhumane time and normally had the first fifteen minutes of breakfast all to himself, only kept company by some of the teachers.

“It did strike me as odd,” Xabi continued. “He’s never been so early before. None of you are. And he didn’t even stay long.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, he just grabbed something to drink and some food and then he disappeared again. I have no idea where he went.”

“Huh,” Daniel said, thoughtfully biting on his fingernail. “He didn’t come back to our room so what the hell did he do?”

“You know,” Pepe drawled. “For someone who claims to hate the guy as much as you do, you sure spend a lot of time thinking about him and obsessing over what he does. You got any specific reason for that?”

“What?” Daniel flushed. “I’m not obsessing over him!”

“You kinda are, Dan,” Stevie pointed out and Daniel glared at his friends.

“Whatever,” he snapped and abruptly got up. “I should go. Get ready for class.”

He left without giving the other boys another chance to say something. This was why he hated mornings, especially Monday mornings.

This was so stupid; he was _not_ obsessed with Martin! So what if he found Martin’s behaviour weird and wanted to know what was behind it? That didn’t mean he was obsessed, or anything. He was just curious. He had spent two years avoiding Martin as best as he could but now that Martin had been so forcefully thrust back into his life, it was hard to keep the distance he had established between them.

Daniel let out a frustrated sigh. He didn’t _want_ to care about what Martin did but apparently, some things weren’t easy to permanently get rid of. It wasn’t as if he cared _for_ Martin or anything, he adamantly told himself. He didn’t. Martin was an asshole; he didn’t deserve Daniel caring for him. Not anymore. He just needed to distance himself again. The past days and Martin’s suddenly renewed presence had stirred up feelings Daniel had buried long ago, of course he was a bit rattled at the moment. He just needed to get his thoughts back under control and everything would be fine again. All he needed was more time to adjust and space.

Space, that was the one big problem, Daniel realized when he arrived back at his room and opened the door to find Martin in the process of making his bed. Great. Absolutely brilliant. This was just what he needed.

“Oh,” he spoke up and took a perverse amount of satisfaction out of the way Martin startled at his voice. “You’re back.”

“I am,” Martin said calmly, not turning around to face him.

“You weren’t at breakfast.”

“I was,” Martin stated. “You just weren’t awake yet.”

“Xabi said you didn’t eat breakfast in the hall,” Daniel pointed out, regretting it immediately. Why had he said that? Did he really have to let Martin know that they had discussed him during their own breakfast?

“I didn’t,” Martin confirmed, then paused before he finally turned around to look at Daniel. “You and your friends talk about me a lot?”

Daniel scoffed. “Uh, no? Why should we? It just came up in the conversation, no need to think so highly of yourself.”

Martin sighed. “I don’t. Anyway, you were the one who started this.”

“Oh great, what is this? Kindergarten?”

“I’m really not in the mood to argue with you right now, Daniel,” Martin said, sounding tired and Daniel stood there, opening and closing his mouth several times, painfully aware of how stupid he probably looked.

“Okay good. No-one is forcing you too,” he finally managed to get out, fuming silently. “Of course if you’re not in the _mood_ , I have to respect that. I wouldn’t want to do anything you didn’t want, after all. I know how scared you are of me doing anything you don’t want.”

“Daniel –”

“No,” Daniel interrupted. “You didn’t want to argue so we’re not. There’s nothing to argue about. You know how I feel, I know how you feel, now can we please go back to not talking to each other?”

Martin looked as if he wanted to say something, to protest, but then he deflated and only nodded, turning back to his bed.

Daniel took that as his chance to flee to the bathrooms.

 

“Hey, man, sorry if we bothered you at breakfast,” Stevie said when Daniel arrived for their first class. “We didn’t mean to. We know how hard this whole situation is for you and we weren’t making it any easier.”

“It’s fine,” Daniel sighed, smiling slightly at Stevie. “You don’t have to apologise. I overreacted. In my defence, it was still early and I’d only had one coffee. You know it takes me a while to start functioning properly in the mornings. I shouldn’t have snapped at you.”

“Great!” Carra exclaimed, slinging an arm around both Stevie and Daniel’s shoulders. “Now we’ve all fulfilled our daily quota of heartfelt apologies and shit. Isn’t that great? I’m already feeling so productive today.”

“You’re such an idiot,” Daniel snorted and Carra smirked at him.

“Ah, there he is. The Daniel we all know and pretend to love. Welcome back, we missed you. Actually, we didn’t but Xabi said we should be nice to you.”

“Ugh, please don’t. You being nice is weirding me out.”

“Right? That’s what I told Xabi. Didn’t I, Xabi?” Carra yelled at the young Spaniard who had just now entered the classroom and now raised an eyebrow at them.

“Didn’t you what?”

“Tell you that Dan doesn’t like it when we’re being nice to him.”

“I’m sure that’s not exactly what he meant, Carra,” Xabi said drily and sat down on the seat next to Stevie. “But I’m glad you’re feeling better, Dan.”

“Thanks,” Daniel replied with a smile. “Sorry I was such an ass to you guys.”

“Ah!” Carra yelled. “I said we had already fulfilled our quota of apologies! So why do you keep doing it?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Xabi told him, completely ignoring Carra. “We all have our moments.”

“Yeah, Daniel just has them more often than others,” Stevie interjected and yelped when the pen Daniel had thrown hit him squarely in the forehead.

“Oh, do fuck off, Gerrard,” he scoffed. “No-one wants to hear what you’ve got to say.”

“Xabi does, right Xabi?” Stevie glanced over to Xabi who smiled back at him and patted his arm reassuringly.

“Sure I do, Stevie,” he replied and Daniel could only shake his head in amazement. It had to take a certain amount of dedication to be as blissfully oblivious as Stevie and Xabi were about their feelings for each other.

“Those two just keep getting more and more ridiculous,” Carra leaned over and murmured so quietly that only Daniel could hear him.

“I’m halfway convinced that they’re already fucking each other and are just pretending to be so oblivious to screw with us,” Daniel whispered back and Carra nodded.

“I totally wouldn’t put it past Xabi,” he said. “But Stevie’s too dumb to pull something like that off.”

Daniel snorted and together they watched the disaster that was Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso with almost morbid fascination and were soon joined in their activity by Pepe who sat down and scowled at Stevie and Xabi.

“I swear to God if those two aren’t together by the end of this school year, I will lock them into a closet together on our last day and I will only let them out after they’ve finally admitted their feelings for each other. That’s how pathetic this whole thing is,” he complained.

“You can’t, sorry,” Carra said and Pepe whined.

“Why not?”

“You can’t interfere with the bet, that’s, like, the first rule,” Daniel informed Pepe who groaned and let his head thump onto the desk top.

“But you don’t understand! Watching them dance around each other like that is actually physically painful for me!”

“Sorry, dude,” Carra patted Pepe’s back sympathetically. “But that’s the way it is. We all have to deal and live with it.”

“And maybe we’re lucky enough and they’ll finally admit to it this year,” Daniel put in and Pepe raised his head from the table to shoot him a disbelieving glance.

“Seriously? At the rate they’re going I’m considering changing my bet to ‘Will probably admit to it on their deathbed but not a minute earlier’.”

The bell rang and at the same time, Martin slipped into the classroom and kept his eyes firmly fixed on the floor as he scurried over to a table in the far corner of the room and sat down.

Daniel frowned but before he could think about what to make of this, their teacher entered the room and the first class of their final year began.

 

“One would really think that lessons would be more interesting now with graduation looming ahead of us,” Stevie complained a few hours later when they sat down for lunch. “But no, everything is still just as boring as ever.”

“You really thought it would get more exciting?” Daniel snorted. “This is school we’re talking about. I don’t think the teachers here wouldn’t know exciting if it bit them in the ass.”

“Don’t be like that,” Xabi chided. “It’s really not that bad.”

“Of course you’d say that. You’re, like, the Number One Teacher’s Pet,” Pepe pointed out and Xabi glowered at him.

“Just because I enjoy school and learning new things, doesn’t mean I’m a teacher’s pet. And maybe the teachers simply like me the best because I, unlike others whose name I won’t mention, actually pay attention and don’t start a spitball war in the middle of class like we’re children.”

“You’re just mad because I accidentally hit you with one,” Pepe said, not able to hide the grin on his face.

“Yes, because it’s disgusting!” Xabi exclaimed, throwing his hands up and Pepe slung an arm around his shoulders.

“Come on, Xabs, it was fun! Live a little!”

“Ugh, children,” Xabi muttered darkly and shrugged Pepe’s arm off his shoulders.

“Leave him alone, Pepe,” Daniel interrupted. “You shouldn’t piss him off; we all know that in a few months time we’ll all be at your door, begging for Xabi to help us pass the exams and then, when he’ll refuse to share his notes with you, you’ll regret this.”

“Damn straight,” Xabi said and Pepe pouted at his friend and roommate.

“Aww, Xabi, you wouldn’t do that, would you? You wouldn’t let me fail on purpose!”

“Just watch me. It would serve you right. Maybe I should just give my notes to no-one this year and watch you all panic and despair when you realize that hey, maybe paying attention in class wouldn’t have been such a bad idea. It would be fun, I’m sure. Well, for me. Not for you because you’d all fail miserably. And then, while I go on to university and become successful, you’ll all still be stuck here and I’ll laugh at you.”

For a few seconds, they all stared at Xabi until Daniel started laughing.

“Jesus Christ,” he wheezed. “Let’s hope Xabi here never decides to become a villain, we’d all be so screwed.”

“Yeah, you would,” Xabi said but he was grinning too.

“His reign would be truly tyrannical,” Stevie butted in. “He would make everyone go to school and receive a proper education so they could make the best of themselves. Oh, the unspeakable horror!”

“Hey, education is important! Even Voldemort knew that. You know that’s why he always waited until the end of each school year until he attacked Harry.”

“So thoughtful of him. Though I’m pretty sure Harry wouldn’t have minded.”

“But Hermione would’ve probably found a way to defeat him on her own before the second year was over just so she could finally go back to learning stuff without always being interrupted.”

“Yeah, Hermione was badass.”

“So wait, just to be clear here. Are we saying Xabi is like Voldemort? Or is he Hermione? Because I kinda lost track of that in the conversation.”

They kept up the easy flowing banter between them for the whole lunch break, trading back quips and teasing each other and Daniel soaked up the happy feeling of being surrounded by his friends again. Sure, sometimes going to a boarding school sucked big time and sometimes his friends annoyed him to no end but after this year, when school would be over, he’d miss spending all his time with those guys.

It was only when they were already on their way back to their next classroom that he noticed that he hadn’t once seen Martin in the dining hall.

 

He didn’t have much time to further ponder the mystery of Martin Skrtel, even if he had wanted to which he _didn’t_.

Their teachers obviously didn’t care one bit about it being their first day back after summer break and instead solely seemed to focus on the fact that they were all going to graduate in slightly less than a year’s time and thus seemed intent on cramming as much knowledge into the boys’ heads as they possibly could.

“I can’t believe they already gave us homework,” Stevie groaned as they finally left their last class of the day. “It’s only the first day, what the hell is wrong with those people?”

The other boys nodded morosely and even Xabi seemed slightly unhappy with the amount of homework they had been given.

“Teachers suck,” Pepe declared. “Anyway, I’m totally going to need help on that lit paper. Can we meet up in the library and work through the questions together?”

Daniel, who had been digging through his shoulder bag, looked up.

“Sure,” he said. “I just need to get my notebook; I think I forgot it in my room this morning. Catch you guys in a bit?”

At everyone’s nod he dashed off into the direction of his room, determined to just get in, grab his notebook and get out again. He wasn’t planning on taking any longer than absolutely necessary, especially not if Martin was there.

He reached their room in a sprint and already had his hand on the door handle when he noticed that the door was slightly ajar. That was when he heard Martin talking and just like that, all thoughts of making this quick had fled Daniel’s mind. He leaned closer to the opening and when he craned his neck a bit, he caught sight of Martin pacing the room, mobile phone pressed to his ear and running an agitated hand over his shaved head.

“I… No, Marcela, that’s not going to happen, I…” he stopped for a few seconds, obviously listening to whatever the person on the other end of the call had to say. Marcela. Martin’s sister, Daniel’s brain immediately supplied and he hated himself a little for not even having to think about this certain bit of information.

“Listen, I don’t know what you expect me to do…” Martin continued, his voice strained. “No… No, stop, okay? I’m no- they’ve made it absolutely clea- Jesus Christ, would you please _shut up_ for just one second?”

Martin visibly deflated after that sudden outburst and he sank down on his bed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to snap at you,” he apologized and sighed wearily. “No, no, I know… Yes, I’m fine… I’m _fine_ , Marcela, it’s just… It’s not easy, okay?”

Daniel had never seen Martin look so exhausted and tired before and something in the pit of his stomach twisted at the sight. He swallowed and quickly shook his head. No, he had to stop this. He had promised himself to stop caring about Martin a long time ago, he wasn’t going to start again now. And yet, he still couldn’t find it in himself to stop listening in on Martin’s conversation and walk away. Something had him remain rooted to the spot and Martin started talking again.

“I know you do, Marcela, but they don’t and… No, I don’t think they’re gonna change their… Look, it’s not worth it, okay? I’m gonna deal with it just please, stay out of this. Yes, yes, I _know_ but I don’t want you to… _Yes_ , and I appreciate but… I, yes, no, listen, I’ve got to go, okay? Yes, I’m sorry… Yeah… Yeah, I’ll call you. Yes, I… I _promise_ but I’ve really got go… Okay, okay, yeah, love you too, bye.”

Martin hung up and for a few seconds, he stared at the mobile phone in his hand, then, with a frustrated sound, he threw it across the room where it landed face down directly in front of Daniel’s bed.

Martin buried his face in his hands and Daniel watched his shaking shoulders for a few seconds before he realized that Martin was crying. Startled, he took a step away from the door, staring at it with wide eyes. Ever since he had known Martin, he had never once seen him cry. Disconcerted, he wrapped his arms around himself and somewhere down the hall, a door slammed shut. He gave a violent start and with one last look at the door, he all but ran away, completely forgetting about the notebook he had originally wanted to fetch.

 

He was completely out of breath when he reached the table in the library at which his friends were sitting and he dropped heavily into the only free seat, his mind still reeling from what he had seen back in his room.

“Oh, there you are,” Stevie said. “What took you so long? We already started without you and – Hey, didn’t you want to get your notebook?”

His friends all looked at him and Daniel’s mouth opened and closed a few times.

“I…”

“Daniel, are you okay?” Xabi asked, concern creeping into his voice and Daniel could do nothing but mutely shake his head.

“What happened? Did someone… What did Martin do this time?” Carra narrowed his eyes and Daniel’s eyes widened slightly before he quickly shook his head.

“He didn’t do anything!” he exclaimed. “Well, not really, I mean, just…”

He broke off with a frustrated sound and Xabi leaned over to put a gentle hand on his arm.

“Use your words, Daniel,” he said kindly. “What happened? I haven’t seen you this shaken since…” He trailed off but Carra finished his sentence for him with a snort.

“Since that whole thing with Martin happened two years ago.”

Stevie, Xabi and Pepe all nodded and Daniel sighed, running a hand through his hair.

“Listen, I shouldn’t tell you this but I… I don’t know, I don’t even really know what all that was _about_ , it could be nothing but…”

“Daniel, spit it out.”

“I overheard something, okay? I came back to the room and when I wanted to go in, he was on the phone with his sister and I… I may have been eavesdropping.”

The other three boys exchanged a look.

“And?” Stevie prompted and Daniel shrugged.

“Like I said, I don’t really know what it was about, I only got his side of the conversation. But it sounded… bad. I don’t know, I’ve _never_ seen Martin like that. Just… Listen, guys, don’t be mad or anything but I’d rather be alone right now. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Dan,” Xabi said with a reassuring smile. “We get it.”

“Thanks,” Daniel nodded and got up again. “See you around.”

“Hey Daniel,” Xabi called after him as he turned to leave. “If you do wanna talk about it with us, you know where to find us.”

Daniel took a deep breath but otherwise didn’t react as he strode out of the library. He wasn’t even out of the door yet before he had his phone out and fired a quick text message to Finns.

_‘need to talk are you free’_

He just about had enough time to find an empty classroom when his phone rang, displaying Finns’ number and Daniel had never been happier about his best friend’s addiction to his mobile phone.

“Hey Finns,” he breathed and closed his eyes for a second. “Thanks for calling so quickly.”

“Sure thing. What’s up? That message didn’t sound too good.”

“I need… I need your advice.”

“Oh, now _that_ really doesn’t sound good. What happened?”

“So I may have overheard some things I shouldn’t have and now I don’t know what to do,” Daniel said in a rush, sliding down onto the floor and leaning his back against the teacher’s desk.

“Okay, first of all you have to slow down. And then you tell me what happened exactly.”

Daniel took a deep breath and started telling Finns the whole story, what he had heard, everything.

“Wow, okay,” Finns said after he had finished. “Do you have any idea what the whole conversation could’ve been about?”

Daniel shrugged, only belatedly remembering that Finns couldn’t actually see him. “No idea. Though if I had to make a guess, I’d say he’s having family problems.”

Finns hummed in agreement and Daniel sighed.

“What should I do now? Should I talk to him about it?”

“You do realize that talking to him about it would mean admitting that you eavesdropped on him?”

“I know. But Finns, you weren’t there. You didn’t see him. He was _crying_ , for heaven’s sake!”

“Huh. I didn’t even think he was capable of such emotions.”

“This is not a joke, Steve.”

“I know! Listen, if you wanna talk to him about it, you should. I don’t get why you feel obligated to do it but you’ve always been a better person than me.”

“I’m really not,” Daniel snorted. “I don’t even know why I care so much myself.”

“I do,” Finns said quietly and Daniel rubbed his eyes tiredly.

“Yeah, I do, too.”

For a few seconds, neither of them said a word, then Finns started talking again.

“Go and talk to him. We both know you won’t be able to let it rest until you do. Go and be the better person.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Thanks, Finns.”

“What for? I didn’t really do anything.”

“You listened. That’s enough.”

“God, seriously, shut up, this isn’t a chick flick, stop emoting at me!”

“Ugh, you just totally ruined our moment. You’re such an asshole.” Daniel let out a small laugh, incredibly glad that he had Finns to make him laugh even in moments like that. “But really, thank you.”

“Yeah, whatever, Danielle. Now go and talk to the guy.”

They both hung up after that and Daniel took a few more seconds to collect himself, hugging his knees to his chest. God, he hated what Martin could still do to him even after all this time.

With a heavy sigh, he got up and dusted himself off before starting to make his way back to his room. He couldn’t believe he was actually going to do this.

 

For a while, Daniel stood in front of the now closed door to his shared bedroom and didn’t do anything. He just stared at the wood as if it was going to come to life any minute now and eat him alive and honestly, he wasn’t sure if this wasn’t the more preferable option. He considered turning around and just leaving it be, he really had no reason to get involved in this but he had already said he’d go and talk to Martin so now he had to do it.

He straightened his back and opened the door determinedly before he could change his mind.

Martin looked up at him from where he was lying on his bed and Daniel stared at him for a few seconds.

Martin didn’t really look as if something had happened. Sure, he looked a bit pale but honestly, when didn’t he? Maybe it was a bit paler than usual but apart from that, he looked just like he always did.

“What?” Martin said and furrowed his eyebrows and Daniel braced himself internally.

“I wanted to talk to you,” he said and Martin sat up, obviously surprised.

“Oh, did you now?” he asked, his voice sounding slightly dismissive and Daniel faltered. “I thought you never wanted to acknowledge my existence again?”

“Yeah, listen, I…” He ran a hand through his already dishevelled hair. “I just wanted to talk to you because I was here earlier and –”

“No, you know what?” Martin interrupted him and got off the bed. “I have decided that I don’t want to listen to you.”

Daniel gaped at him. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Why should I?” Martin continued. “You’ve been nothing but hostile to me so far. Why should I want to listen to anything you have to say?”

“Yeah?” Daniel snapped. “Well I have every goddamn reason to be hostile! And I only wanted to fucking help you?”

“Oh, you wanted to _help_ me!” Martin snarled, glaring daggers at him. “Well then! So nice of you to stoop to my level, I feel so honoured.”

“Fuck you!” Daniel spat and Martin pointed his finger at him.

“No, fuck you! I don’t want your fucking help! I don’t need help from a… a…”

“A what?” Daniel challenged him and for a few seconds the two of them stood face to face, their faces only separated by a few centimetres, both of them breathing heavily.

Then Martin whirled around and stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

“You’re an asshole!” Daniel shouted after him and kicked the leg of Martin’s bed.

That’s what he got for actually wanting to help Martin fucking Skrtel for once.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, kill me now, I'm so sleep-deprived thanks to NaNo and the fact that apparently, I can't get working on this fic properly before 10pm. On the bright side, it's almost over! I'm currently at exactly 42,000 words so not much left now and I can get back to my regular sleeping pattern^^ I can't wait.  
> Aaaanyway, on with the angst! (Because holy shit, there's so much angst in this fic. So much repetitive angst. I hope you guys are not getting bored already.)

Martin hadn’t returned to their room that night at all and frankly, Daniel didn’t care. He was completely and utterly done with giving a damn about Martin. For good, this time. And anyone who claimed that beneath all the anger he felt, he was a tiny bit worried about where Martin had disappeared to and where he had spent the night, was a dirty little liar. He was _not_ worried, he did _not_ care, he would be absolutely glad if he never had to see Martin again.

“Stupid asshole,” he grumbled as he struggled getting into his shirt. “Here I am, trying to be nice even though he doesn’t even deserve it at all and what happens?”

He slammed the door to the wardrobe shut, glaring accusingly at Martin’s empty bed.

“What the fuck is wrong with you anyway?” he snapped even though there was no-one there to give an answer. “This is the last time I’m ever going to try and help you.

That said, he turned around and left the room, heading for the dining hall to eat breakfast before classes. Hopefully Martin wouldn’t be there again. He wasn’t sure what he’d do if he saw him now.

“You look surprisingly awake,” Stevie commented when Daniel dropped into the seat across from him and Daniel crossed his arms.

“I’m too pissed to be tired,” he declared and Stevie’s eyebrows rose up.

“So… I guess whatever happened with Martin yesterday didn’t get any better?”

Daniel huffed. “Don’t even talk to me about that asshole.”

Stevie stared at him for a few seconds before he shrugged. “Okay, sure. Whatever you say.”

Then he went back to eating and it took approximately five seconds for Daniel’s resolve to crumble.

“Okay, like, so I decided to talk to him about how I overheard his conversation with his sister yesterday,” he burst out. “And all I wanted to do was offer him my help and stuff but I couldn’t even get one word in until he suddenly got all mad and he started yelling at me how he didn’t need my help and blah blah blah, all like ‘I’m a strong, independent _asshole_ who don’t need no help’ and then he stormed out and I haven’t seen him since.”

He finished his rant, slightly out of breath and was met by stunned silence from the other boys at his table and Stevie slowly put down the spoon he had been eating his cereal with.

“Uh, wow?” Stevie offered weakly and Daniel slumped back in his seat.

“It’s really my own fault,” he continued. “I shouldn’t have gone talk to him in the first place. Why would I even do such a thing? I don’t like him, he doesn’t like me, it should be the end of the whole story!”

“Then why did you?” Xabi prodded carefully and Daniel sighed.

“I don’t know, okay? It just felt like the right thing to do and…” He trailed off and the others looked at him expectantly.

“And what?” Xabi asked and Daniel squared his shoulders.

“Nothing,” he said. “And nothing. That’s it. It felt like the right thing to do. God only knows why but I sure have learned from this mistake.”

Xabi looked at him suspiciously and Daniel did his best to avoid his gaze. He didn’t want to talk about how, no matter how much he tried to deny it, there would always be a small part of him that cared for Martin. They had been friends once, they had been as close as friends could get and some of that still lingered. He would never be able to fully get Martin out of his system but he could damn well try and that was what he was going to do.

“Just leave it, guys,” he finally sighed. “Forget I ever said anything, I just want to forget about this. From now on Martin Skrtel no longer has any place in my life. Yes, we have to share a room but that doesn’t mean I’ll have to talk to him. I’m done. He and I are history. Now can we please talk about something else? I’ve had enough of Martin Skrtel to last me a lifetime.”

For a second it looked as if his friends would ignore his request but then Carra rolled his eyes and Stevie picked up his spoon again and just like that, they had thankfully dropped the subject. He really did have the best friends.

“I was just telling the guys that I want to hold the try-outs for the football on Friday,” Stevie informed him and Daniel perked up. Football, great. He could really do with the distraction.

“Awesome,” he said. “Did you finally hear back about the Luis situation?”

Stevie shook his head and swallowed his cereal before he answered. “Not yet but we’ve got a meeting this afternoon so I should know more by dinner tonight and then I can put up the sign-up sheets. But honestly, I’m pretty sure they won’t let Luis back on the team.”

“Damn,” Daniel sighed and the others nodded in agreement.

“But,” Stevie continued and beamed brightly at him. “The good news is that we won’t have to start looking for a new midfielder!”

Daniel’s gaze immediately turned to Xabi and he raised his eyebrows as the young Spaniard blushed.

“Really?” he said. “So you’re not leaving the team after all?”

“Apparently not,” Xabi replied with a slight smile. “I couldn’t do that to Stevie, could I?”

“No, of course not,” Daniel agreed with a smirk and next to him, Carra coughed around a word that sounded suspiciously like ‘gay’.

“You’re really saving my ass, Xabi,” Stevie said, smiling happily at the other boy. “Don’t know what we would’ve done without you. I need you as my midfield partner.”

“Oh so that’s the only thing you need him for?” Pepe muttered and Daniel choked on his coffee.

“Now, now,” Carra said with a grin, thumping his back repeatedly. “Don’t kill yourself or we’ll have to look for two new defenders and I don’t think Stevie would survive that.”

“Damn straight!” Stevie exclaimed and sent Pepe into a laughing fit.

“ _Straight_ ,” Pepe snickered but Stevie continued as if he hadn’t heard anything and kept on talking.

“No-one’s allowed to die on my watch.”

“Aww, you do care,” Daniel swooned. “That’s so sweet of you, Stevie.”

He put a hand over his heart and turned to Pepe with an expression of mock infatuation. “Did you hear that, Pepe? Stevie doesn’t want me to die. Oh happy day!”

“You’re all idiots,” Stevie grumbled and rolled his eyes. “Maybe I should replace you. All of you. With more mature people who don’t mock their captain all the time.”

“Ooooh, ‘the captain’, huh? Man, I can practically _feel_ the authority. Admit it, Gerrard, you’d be so bored without us. We keep your life exciting.”

“Just please don’t go around and start biting people as well, okay?” Stevie sighed. “I don’t think I could deal with more incidences like that.”

“Don’t worry, Stevie,” Pepe said and patted his shoulder reassuringly. “We would never bite someone. Maim, or seriously injure but we wouldn’t waste our time on simple biting.”

“Yeah, Stevie,” Carra added. “What do you take us for?”

“Jesus Christ, you suck so much,” Stevie groaned. “Xabi, save me. You’re the only one here who’s a relatively normal person.”

“Oh I don’t know, Stevie,” Xabi said thoughtfully. “I _did_ read somewhere that human flesh is actually quite healthy and nutritious, so maybe Luis is on to something.”

Stevie stared at him, eyes wide with betrayal but Xabi nonchalantly turned his attention back to his breakfast. Daniel seriously loved that boy.

“You know,” he told Carra. “If Stevie doesn’t snatch Xabi up, I will.”

“Get in line,” Pepe said and punched his arm.

“As if Xabi would ever go for you,” Daniel scoffed and Pepe pouted at him.

“Excuse me? I’ll have you know that I am totally awesome and Xabi would be lucky to have me.”

“Please,” Xabi interrupted them with a roll of his eyes. “I would never go out with any of you. We all know I could do _so_ much better.”

“Wow, that’s actually really hurtful,” Daniel told Xabi and Pepe nodded along. “We’re both, like, a total catch!”

Xabi looked at them unconvinced before he shook his head.

“Yeah, no, not gonna happen,” he said and Pepe let out a suffering sigh.

“And there goes our one chance at finding true love, Dan.”

“I know; it’s horrible. Xabi doesn’t want us, whatever shall we do now?”

“Oh, it’s hopeless, Dan. We will never be happy again and it’s all your fault, Xabier.”

“You heartless monster!” Daniel exclaimed theatrically and Xabi stared at them in sheer astonishment.

“You guys are crazy,” he said and got up. “Anyway, I’m gonna go and get my books, see you guys at class.”

“No!” Pepe wailed.

“Don’t leave us, Xabi!” Daniel joined in and they laughed as Xabi walked away, paying absolutely no attention to them.

“You’re awful,” Stevie told them and Pepe cooed.

“Aww, don’t worry, Stevie, he still loves you.”

Stevie’s face went a bright shade of red and he glared at them.

“I am _not_ in love with Xabi!” he exclaimed before jumping up and leaving the dining hall in a huff.

Carra turned to Daniel and Pepe with a contemplative look.

“Do you think he hopes that if he tells himself that often enough, it will actually come true?”

 

Walking into their History classroom was the first time that Daniel saw Martin that day. He stared at the other boy for a few seconds, noting the paler than usual skin, the shadows under his eyes and the fact that Martin was still wearing the same clothes he had been wearing the day before. Daniel took a deep breath. He was not going to start feeling bad for Martin again. Absolutely not. It wasn’t his fault that Martin was an asshole with anger management issues and he certainly hadn’t forced him to spend the night wherever he had spent it. There was absolutely no reason for him to feel bad for someone who obviously didn’t want his sympathy or help.

He looked away from Martin who was staring miserably at the History textbook and walked past him to his own seat, head held high and not sparing a single glance at the boy. He could do this.

He dropped down next to Xabi who turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

“So are you just going to completely ignore Martin from now on?” he asked in a low voice and Daniel beamed at him.

“Yep.”

“You really think that’s going to work in the long run?”

“Yep.”

Xabi sighed. “Alright then. It’s your decision.”

“Yep.”

Xabi shook his head but turned away again, for now content with letting Daniel do as he saw fit, and Daniel let his smile drop immediately. He rested his chin on his hand and stared moodily at the back of Martin’s head. Ignoring him wasn’t going to be easy but he was damn well going to try his best.

 

He had barely made it out of class later that day when his mobile phone rang, displaying Finns’ number. Quickly, Daniel excused himself from his friends and walked a few steps away before answering.

“’Sup, Finns.”

“You are a terrible friend,” Finns said by way of greeting and Daniel blinked.

“I… What?”

“You call me yesterday, complaining about Martin and his problems and everything and then you don’t even tell me how your talk with him went. Shame on you, Dan. Shame on you.”

“I… Sorry,” Daniel sighed. “I guess I forgot, kinda?”

Finns huffed. ”You forgot? Did it go that well, or what? Are you guys best friends again now?”

“Okay, first of all,” Daniel replied. “You’re my best friend and no-one, not ever, could take that away from you because you’re awesome and I couldn’t ask for a better best friend.”

“Aww, Dan, you do know how to make a guy feel good, that’s all I wanted to hear.”

“Of course you did. Anyway, that aside, the conversation did absolutely not go well.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, though I guess saying it didn’t go well is kinda wrong because in order to say that, we would have had to have a conversation in the first place. Which we didn’t. Because Martin’s an asshole.”

“What happened?”

“Well, I went to talk to him, he started yelling at me, I yelled back, he left and I’ve been ignoring him ever since. Trying to talk to him was a bad idea in the first place. I should have listened to you, Finns.”

“Obviously. You should always listen to me because I’m always right.”

“I know; I’m sorry. Will you ever be able to forgive me, oh great Finns?”

Finns let out an exaggerated sigh. “I’ll think about it.”

“You’re so good to me.”

“When am I not? So, what are you going to do now?”

Daniel shrugged. “Nothing. This was a stupid idea to begin with so I’m just gonna go back to ignoring his very existence. Shouldn’t be so hard, I’ve had roughly two years of practice with that.”

“Uh-huh,” Finns said, sounding unconvinced and Daniel bristled slightly.

“What, you think I can’t do it?”

“That is exactly what I think. You’re you, Daniel. I know you. No matter what he did, you’ve never been able to fully cut him out of your life. Dan, you may think that managed to do it before but you didn’t. You never really stopped talking about him, you know? And the only reason why you guys barely talked to each other these past two years is, that you didn’t have a reason to. Now you’re sharing a room and seeing each other every day and you can’t just ignore him. I’m sorry, but that’s how it is.”

“I… I did not always talk about him!” Daniel protested but it sounded weak even to his own ears.

“You did,” Finns rebutted. “You did and you never even notice it. That should tell you something, Daniel.”

“Well what the fuck am I supposed to do? It’s not as if I want to still care about him or anything. I wish I could just stop and I’m _trying_ and what is it you expect me to do?”

“I don’t expect you to do anything, Dan,” Finns sighed. “Listen, you know that I’ve never been Martin Skrtel’s biggest fan and I’d probably the last person to tell you to forgive him. I really don’t think you should. But this is not about me and what I think, this is about _you_. You need to figure out what you want.”

Daniel closed his eyes and wrapped one arm around himself. “I just don’t want to get hurt again,” he whispered. “I can’t forgive him. Not yet. I’m not sure if I ever can.”

“And that’s okay, Daniel,” Finns assured him. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want. If you want to be mad at him and ignore him, you do that, no matter what I think about your chances of success with that. If you want to forgive him and try be friends again, you do that as well. It’s all up to you, Dan. It’s your life, your decision and no-one else can make it for you. You gotta do what you think is best for you.”

“Thanks, Finns.”

“Any time. That’s what I’m here for, isn’t it?”

“I should,” Daniel took a deep breath. “I should probably get going before this turns into any more of a sob fest.”

Finns snorted. “That’s probably a good idea, yes. Don’t let that asshole get you down, you’re so much better than him.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty awesome,” he replied with a small smile.

“That you are. I wouldn’t hang with you if you weren’t.”

“Of course not. Bye, Finns.”

“Bye, Dan. Take care.”

Daniel hung up, suddenly feeling exhausted. Forgiving Martin was not an option, especially not after what had happened the day before. He was just going to have to try harder with cutting Martin out of his life as good as possible, what with them being roommates.

“This sucks,” he muttered and reluctantly started making his way back to his room. “This sucks so damn much.”

 

Martin was back in their room when Daniel opened the door and for a second, he had to fight the urge to say something. He wanted to ask where he had been, what he had done and what the hell his problem was but he managed to restrain himself. Instead he walked over to his bed without saying a word and got out the book he was reading.

“Daniel…” Martin began but Daniel refused to look at him. Silently, he lay down on the bed and cracked the book open, thumbing through the pages to find his bookmark again.

“Daniel, I’m sorry about yesterday. I… I was out of line and I was in a bad way and I took it out on you even though you’d done nothing to deserve it and I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that and I shouldn’t have said the things I did and…”

Martin trailed off and Daniel stubbornly kept staring at the pages of the book, trying his best not to react to anything Martin had said and to just keep reading.

“I know things haven’t been good between us for a long time and I know that it’s my fault and I just keep screwing things up even more even though I don’t know why and I understand that you’re mad at me and that you don’t really believe me when I say that I’m sorry but… I am.”

Daniel gritted his teeth and turned a page, letting Martin’s words wash over him.

“Daniel?” Martin asked, sounding small and uncertain. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”

Daniel had to fight to keep his attention on his book and after a few seconds, Martin let out a small, dejected sound.

“Oh,” he mumbled. “I see. I guess I can’t really blame you, can I? I’m just… I’m just gonna go, leave you alone. I…”

Martin hurried out of the room and Daniel let the book fall from his limp hands. He hadn’t been able to read a single word.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On 30th November at 11:39pm CET, this fic and I officially became winners of NaNoWriMo 2014! *gets out balloons and throws confetti*  
> I can't believe I actually managed to get through this whole thing and write the 50,000 words but I did it and I may have started crying from pure relief and exhaustion. Damn, this year's NaNo was way harder than my previous ones... But the sense of accomplishment is even stronger that way and personally, I'm going to celebrate this win by spending tonight watching TV and doing absolutely nothing until I go to bed early to start catching up on all the sleep NaNoWriMo robbed me off.
> 
> Anyway! So, NaNoWriMo 2014 is officially over. What does that mean for this fic? First of all, no, I'm not finished with the entire thing yet. Secondly, I fully intend on doing so eventually. I wouldn't leave you guys hanging. ;) That said, I probably will take a bit of a break from writing and this fic in particular because it really drained me and I'm starting to resent it and I don't want that. So I'm taking some time off to recharge my creative energies and get some distance so I can go at it with a fresh view at some point. In the meantime, I still have a few finished chapters that I haven't posted yet, so hopefully, that'll last us until I go back to writing.
> 
> Thank you all for your kudos and your comments and everything else that kept me going. You guys rock! *throws glitter at you*

The next few days passed in a similar fashion. Daniel did his best to avoid Martin and Martin seemed to have mostly given up on trying to talk to him, which Daniel was immensely grateful for. It was already hard enough to ignore Martin when they were just in the same room, it would have been even harder had Martin continued trying to engage him in a conversation.

As it was, they rarely came into contact with each other. The only times they did see each other were during classes and when they got back to their room shortly before they would go to sleep. According to Xabi, Martin still came to breakfast as early as possible, grabbed a few things to eat and then immediately left again, and he never showed up for any of the other meals. If Daniel hadn’t decided to stop caring about what Martin did, he would have been worried. But he wasn’t. Much. At least that was what he told himself and everyone else.

He had no idea what Martin did when he wasn’t in their room. He regularly saw Andriy Voronin and the rest of Martin’s group of friends but Martin was never with them and Daniel also never saw him anywhere else. But really, it wasn’t his problem. Martin could do whatever the hell he wanted to and if his plans didn’t include his friends then hey, that was his decision. And no matter what Xabi said, it was _not_ weird. People always did stuff on their own; maybe Martin had just developed an extreme unsocial streak in addition to being a giant asshole. It happened.

So all in all, Operation: Avoid Martin was going quite well, or at least as well as could be expected, and by the time Friday rolled around, Daniel was starting to feel like this could actually work. He was finally going to cut Martin Skrtel out of his life once and for all, no going back, and it had only taken him two years to do so.

 

When the bell rang, signalling the end of their last class of the day, the entire week, Daniel let out a sigh of relief and quickly threw his books into his bag. He could barely remember when he had last been so glad to finally get out of the last Friday class but this whole week had been extraordinarily exhausting and difficult. He was just glad the weekend was finally there so he could recharge and put all the stress of that first week behind him.

 “Yo, Dan!” Stevie called out when Daniel was already almost out of the door and the other boy broke into a short sprint to catch up to Daniel.

“What’s up?” Daniel asked as they made their way through the throng of students, skilfully evading collision with any of the other boys.

“You’re coming today, right?” Stevie said and Daniel threw him a confused look.

“Coming where?”

Stevie rolled his eyes and let out a put-upon sigh. “Seriously, Dan? I can’t believe you forgot. We’re having the try-outs for the football team today, remember?”

Daniel groaned. “Right. That was today.”

“Yes, it was. Don’t tell me you’ve already got other plans. Because this is important.”

“No, of course not. I was just really looking forward to just doing nothing at all. But I guess I can still do that some other time.”

“Good. You need to be there, Daniel. We’re looking for defenders after all. Whoever we pick, you, Carra and Glen are the ones who have to work closest with him so we really can’t do this without you guys.”

“I know, Stevie,” Daniel tried to appease his friend. “I’ll be there, I promise. Just let me get my stuff back to my room and then I’ll come down to the pitch.”

Stevie nodded, obviously content with that answer and clapped him on the shoulder.

“Right, see you in a few minutes then. I gotta run, I have to get everything ready before try-outs start.”

“Alright, see you,” Daniel gave a small wave at the other boy as they separated and he swiftly headed back to his room. It was better to not keep Stevie waiting, especially not when it came to football. They all loved the sport but Stevie lived it. And while that was great because it made for an amazing captain of their team, it also could get really annoying really fast when Stevie started insisting on training at the most impossible times.

Thankfully, he was alone when he arrived at his room and he dumped the bag with his books on the bed and quickly changed into more football appropriate clothing before heading out again.

On the floor, he ran into Pepe who was their team’s keeper and Daniel smiled at him.

“You headed to the pitch too?” he asked and Pepe rolled his eyes.

“Of course I am. Do you really think Stevie would let me get away with not showing? He’d probably skin me alive.”

Daniel laughed and shrugged. “True.”

“Carra’s already there,” Pepe told him. “He’s helping Stevie set everything up and I think Xabi already went there as well. At least he wasn’t in when I came back and I’m, like, 100% sure he doesn’t want to miss a second of watching Stevie run around in his kit. Pretty sure it’s a fetish.”

Daniel pulled a face. “And that was more than I ever wanted to think about. Thanks for that.”

“Hey, if I have to live through the mental images, I’m gonna drag you down with me.”

“You are so kind, Reina,” Daniel snorted and Pepe elbowed him slightly into the ribs.

“I do try my best, so thank you.”

Together, they made their way to the football pitch where Stevie was already waiting and scowling at them upon arrival.

“What the hell took you so long?” he huffed and Daniel raised his eyebrows.

“Excuse me? It’s only been, like, ten minutes!”

“Yeah, you need to relax,” Pepe added and Stevie frowned.

“Sorry for actually giving a shit about whether we win the trophy this year or not,” he snapped and Daniel sighed deeply.

“Stevie, we want to win it too but man, we aren’t even late or anything so get off our backs.”

“Xabi’s been here the entire time,” Stevie pointed out, nodding towards the young Spaniard who was at the far side of the pitch, helping Carra set up one of the goals.

Next to Daniel, Pepe snorted and leaned in closer to Daniel. “See? Told you.”

“I never doubted it,” Daniel muttered back. Pepe was about to reply but a glare from Stevie quickly shut him up.

“If you’re quite finished gossiping yet,” he said frostily and Daniel and Pepe shared an exasperated look before they followed Stevie to where he was finishing setting up a few training dummies.

While they were working they were gradually joined by the remaining established members of their team and Pepe turned to Daniel with a sour expression.

“See, this is why it sucks to be best friends with Stevie. We get scolded for not being here early enough and have to help with all the work and they can show up whenever they want and Stevie doesn’t say a word.”

Daniel shrugged and was just about to say something when Stevie waved them over.

“Alright everyone!” Stevie said cheerfully. “So today’s all about finding our new teammates,” he waved a sheet of paper at them which Daniel guessed was the sign-up sheet Stevie had put up earlier that week. “Luckily quite a lot of people have signed up for try-outs so it shouldn’t be too hard to find someone and then we can go back to usual as business and work on –”

Stevie suddenly broke off, staring at the sheet with wide eyes, his mouth snapping shut. Daniel and Pepe exchanged a surprised look and they weren’t the only ones who seemed to wonder what had suddenly gotten into their captain.

Carra stepped up next to Stevie and frowned at him. “You okay there, Stevie?”

“What?” Stevie shook his head, snapping out of whatever he’d been under. “What? Oh yeah. I’m fine, it’s nothing. I’m sorry.” He gave them a forced looking smile and took a deep breath before he continued. “As I was saying, as soon as we have our new teammates, we’ll go back to training regularly and I want everyone to give his absolute best this year. We got so close, _so close_ to winning last season and I’ll be damned if I let that title slip away again. We clear?”

Everyone nodded.

“Good. But just to be clear, if I find anyone not giving a full 100% during training and the matches, I will personally hunt that person down and trust me, it would not end pretty. You’d all do best to remember that. Anyway. Everyone, I want you all to pay attention and make notes on every single potential candidate we see today. This isn’t only my decision, we are a team and we’re going to decide this as a team!”

Not far from him and Pepe, Daniel heard Glen Johnson, their third defender, mutter “Which team?” and he was not the slightest bit surprised when Pepe immediately took the cue and crowed “Wildcats!” in obvious delight.

Stevie turned to him with a thunderous look on his face while the other members of the team snickered, but before Stevie could round on him, he was cut short by the arrival of their prospects. And suddenly, Daniel understood what had caused Stevie’s strange behaviour during his earlier speech.

“Oh you have _got_ to be kidding me,” he said stunned and stared incredulously at Martin goddamn Skrtel who had just walked onto the pitch.

 

“Stevie,” he hissed as soon as they had moved to the sidelines. “Stevie, he can’t be here. You have to send him away.”

“I can’t do that, Daniel,” Stevie replied with a sigh. “He put his name down on the sign-up sheet and I have to let everyone who wants try out. I’m sorry, Dan, but I can’t really do anything about him being here.”

“Of course you can! You’re the captain!”

Daniel glared at Martin who was studiously avoiding his eyes and Stevie put a hand on his shoulder.

“Yes, and because I’m the captain I can’t just send him away without a good reason. And no,” he quickly continued before Daniel could interrupt him. “You two not getting along is not a good reason. Anyway, just because he’s here and going to try out for the team doesn’t mean anything. Just relax, Dan.”

“Easier said than done,” Daniel muttered darkly but didn’t protest any further. Instead he walked over to where the rest of the team was sitting and flopped down next to Xabi.

“Ugh, I can’t believe it,” he told the Spaniard. “It’s like, for two years there was nothing and now I just can’t seem to get rid of him. It’s ridiculous.”

“Don’t worry, Dan,” Carra told him, leaning over Xabi to pat Daniel’s knee reassuringly. “He probably sucks anyway and then you can make fun of him and you’ll feel better.”

Daniel snorted and watched as Stevie walked up to the group of boys who had showed up for the try-out.

“Thanks for coming, everyone!” Stevie told the boys in a loud and clear voice. “As you know, we’re looking for a new striker and a new defender so hopefully at least some of you don’t suck at this. Now, we’re going to test you on a few things; speed, agility, your handling of the ball, things like that. I and the rest of the team will be watching you carefully and evaluate your performances so have fun, do your best and impress us! First of all, we will see how fast you guys are. I’m gonna split you up into different groups and have you guys race each other. I’ll take your times.”

Daniel watched as Stevie separated the boys into groups of four, his eyes glued to Martin who was nervously shifting from foot to foot and still looking anywhere but at Daniel.

He forcefully tore his gaze away from the other boy when the first group stepped up to their places and Stevie blew the whistle. The race didn’t take long and Daniel could see Stevie writing down something on his notepad, most likely each boy’s personal time. The process was repeated for the next two groups and finally, it was Martin’s turn. Daniel narrowed his eyes and glared daggers at the boy’s back, desperately wishing for him to screw this up. But of course, because this was his life and his life _sucked_ , when the whistle blew and Martin and the others in his group raced off, it was Martin who reached their finish line first.

“Right!” Stevie called. “That was a good start. Next, we’re going to do some dribbling exercises so I can see how well you control your body and the ball.”

He pointed to where the cones they had put up earlier stood. “Same groups as before!”

One group after the other went up, dribbling around the cones, some more successful than the others and with each cone Martin dribbled around effortlessly, Daniel gripped his pencil tighter until Xabi had to reach over and gently pry it out of his fingers, giving him a stern look.

“Stop it,” Xabi hissed and with a huff, Daniel snatched his pencil back.

“I’m not doing anything,” he told the other boy and Xabi gave him a look that clearly let him know that Xabi was calling bullshit on what he had just said. Daniel decided to do the only sensible thing here and ignored Xabi, turning his attention back to the pitch where Stevie was instructing their prospects on the next exercise.

It continued like that for roughly an hour. Stevie let the boys complete several more drills and the rest of the team watched and took notes, even though Daniel grew more and more frustrated with each exercise that passed. He absolutely hated to admit it and he probably would never say it out aloud but Martin wasn’t bad. One might even go so far and say that he was good. He was fast, had good control over the ball and he certainly wasn’t afraid of going up against another player in order to win a ball back. Two years ago, Daniel would have loved having someone like Martin on the team but now all he wanted to do was walk up to Martin, grab him and ask him what the hell he thought he was doing here. This was Daniel’s thing; he didn’t want Martin butting in on that, no matter how good he might be. Martin could be as good as Ronaldo used to be for all Daniel cared. He still wouldn’t want him on the same team.

Finally, Stevie blew the whistle for a last time and gestured for the candidates to come together.

“That was great, everyone,” he said with a smile at each boy. “Thank you for coming, we’ve seen a lot of promising things today. We will now discuss what you’ve done and I’ll let you know who made the team on Monday. Now go get a shower, everyone.”

With that, he dismissed the boys who all walked away, exhausted but laughing and talking together except for Martin who was trailing a bit behind them as Daniel noticed when he watched them go. He shook his head and turned back around.

Stevie had walked over to them and let himself drop down on the grass, facing them.

“So what did you guys think?” he asked.

“I don’t know about you but I thought it was pretty clear who our new striker should be,” Daniel Sturridge piped up. “The only one who’s worth to come into consideration was that Rickie Lambert kid.”

Stevie nodded. “Yeah, the others were pretty awful to be honest. And Rickie pulled of quite a few nice tricks and he looked really good in front of the goal.”

Daniel nodded in agreement and watched as most of the others did the same.

“So everyone in favour of taking Rickie on? Let’s do a vote, raise your hand if you’re for it.”

Almost all the hands went up and Stevie nodded in satisfaction.

“Great, that’s definitely the majority. Anyway, now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get to the more difficult part… The defender.”

Stevie paused for a few seconds and looked over towards Daniel, hesitating, and Daniel had the bad feeling that he wouldn’t like what he was going to hear next.

“There were actually quite a few really good prospects there but ultimately, I thought Martin Skrtel was the best,” Stevie continued and Daniel felt his heart drop.

“No,” he spoke up immediately and Stevie took a deep breath. “Absolutely not, Stevie. We’re not letting _him_ on the team.”

“Listen, Dan,” Stevie said with a heavy sigh. “I know you guys don’t really get along but did you see him?” Stevie’s eyes lit up and that could only be a bad sign. “He’s fucking terrifying! Our opponents are going to shit themselves just by seeing him!”

Stevie sounded absolutely delighted at that prospect and Daniel scowled at him.

“What about that other kid?” he asked desperately. “The one who looks like the lovechild of you and Xabi?”

Next to him, Xabi made a choked sound and Stevie blushed slightly while Pepe snickered.

“You mean Alberto?” Stevie said after he had composed himself again. “He was good but Martin was _better_. Plus, we could really use the intimidation factor. Everyone will think twice before daring to go up against someone like Martin.”

To his absolute horror, Daniel saw several of the others nod along to what Stevie was saying.

“Stevie, please,” he began. “You _can’t_ , I –”

“Let’s vote, shall we?” Stevie interrupted. “Everyone who thinks we should get Martin on the team raise your hand now.”

Daniel watched as pretty much every single teammate of his raised their hand and he shook his head in indignation.

“I’m sorry, Dan,” Stevie said. “But we really have to think about what’s best for the team here and you’re outvoted. Whatever happened between you and Martin, work it out. We need him. And we need _you_ to keep a clear head and give your best for the team.”

Daniel clenched his fist but swallowed down his anger and he gave a sharp nod. The team meant a lot to him, he would be damned if he let Martin ruin if for him but as soon as Stevie dismissed them, he still stormed off, ignoring his friends calling after him and headed into the direction of his room, for once hoping that Martin would be there. Luckily for him, he was.

 

“You!” Daniel snapped and slammed the door shut behind him.

Martin looked up and arched an eyebrow. “So you’re talking to me again?” he asked and Daniel bristled.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“Reading?” Martin said, holding up the book he held in his hands.

“You know what I fucking mean!” Daniel yelled. “Why would you come to the try-outs for the football team? What game are you playing, huh? Did you decide that you weren’t content with only being my roommate anymore? What, you thought that wasn’t enough anymore so you had to go and try ruin the football team for me too?”

Martin put the book away and got up, facing Daniel head on.

“Did it ever occur to you,” Martin hissed, his voice cold and trembling slightly, “That not everything is about you? I did not decide to try out for the football team to spite you, Daniel.”

“Then why did you do it?”

“Because I thought it would be fun! Because I’m good at football! Because when we stopped being friends you got all our other friends in the divorce! Which I don’t blame you for because they were your friends first but it sucked, okay? So maybe I just thought it would be a good way to make new friends.”

“You have friends!” Daniel exclaimed. “Do stuff with them and leave me alone!”

Martin stared at him with a weird expression on his face before he abruptly shook his head and stepped away from Daniel.

“I’m sorry if you don’t like this,” he told him. “But you can’t tell me what to do. And besides, you’re probably getting worked up over nothing. I doubt Stevie would actually let me on the team. But it was fun pretending that I had a chance so I’m not going to complain.”

Daniel snorted humourlessly. “Well, aren’t you lucky that Stevie also doesn’t do what I tell him to.”

Martin’s head snapped up at that. “What?”

Daniel rolled his eyes. “I guess it doesn’t matter if you find out before Monday. Congrats. You are on the team.”

With that he grabbed his schoolbag and stalked out of the room, leaving behind Martin who was staring after him with his mouth dropped open in shock.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas everyone! :D I'm sorry for being so absent and taking so long to post a new chapter and I wish I could say that I have an excuse but that would be a lie. I was just super lazy.  
> But since it's Christmas and stuff, have a new chapter of more Skagger angst! Yay! *throws tinsel in your face*   
> Anyway, I hope you all have have great holidays, whether you celebrate Christmas or not! *hugs*

Daniel spent the rest of the weekend alternatively trying to convince Stevie to drop Martin from the team roster again and hiding from Martin in any way he could. If Xabi had let him, he would even have spent the night in Xabi and Pepe’s room, but apparently that would have been childish and Daniel should finally learn how to properly deal with his problems. Easy for Xabi to say. Xabi’s biggest problem was the unresolved sexual tension between him and Stevie. If only Daniel’s problems were that easy to solve as well. What he wouldn’t give for some good old unresolved sexual tension.

Instead he had gotten the one blast from the past he had been trying to forget about for the last two years and not only did he have to share a room with him, no, now they were fucking _teammates_ because obviously Stevie liked their football team more than he liked Daniel. According to Carra, that wasn’t exactly news but still, Stevie could have showed a little more consideration.

Since their confrontation after the try-outs, Daniel had gone back to ignoring Martin as well as he could. So Martin wanted to expand his circle of friends, that was all fine and well but did he have to do it by joining Daniel’s football team? Their school offered other teams and clubs, Martin could have joined any of them but no, he’d just had to go for the football team. So what if Martin was good at football? Just because you were good at something didn’t mean you had to do it. And _no_ , he was not being irrational, Xabi, thank you very much.

“I am _not_ being irrational,” he told Xabi on Monday morning while they were on their way to their first class.

“Yes, you are,” Xabi said unperturbed. “You can’t keep ignoring Martin, Daniel.”

“Sure I can. Just watch me! I’m going to ignore him so good, they’ll want to give me a medal.”

“Okay, first of all, that doesn’t even make sense. And secondly, you really, really can’t.”

“Oh yeah? And why is that exactly?”

“He’s on the team now,” Xabi pointed out. “And what’s more, he’s a defender as well. Meaning you two will have to work together. Meaning you can’t ignore him or Stevie will have your head when you mess up during matches because you guys just can’t talk to each other.”

“Well, maybe he should have thought about that before he let Martin on the team,” Daniel’s petulant response was met with an eye-roll from Xabi.

“Dan, I’m sorry I have to say this but someone has to: You’re being a jerk.”

Daniel opened his mouth to protest but Xabi raised a hand, effectively silencing him.

“Listen to me,” he continued. “I have no idea what happened between you and Martin so I can’t judge whether your behaviour towards him is justified or not but from where I’m standing and with my limited knowledge, I can’t call you anything other than a jerk. It’s been _two years_. Maybe it’s time to just put this to rest and move past it. Martin seems to be trying to do exactly that and the only one preventing it from happening is you.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Daniel said angrily and Xabi stopped walking before he turned around fully to look at him.

“You’re right,” he replied in a serious voice. “I don’t. Because you still refuse to tell us what happened.”

“I just don’t like talking about it, okay?” Daniel said with a sigh, wrapping his arms around himself. “All I am going to tell you is, that if Martin suddenly wants to be friends again now, he can forget about it. He was the one who walked away, not me. I wanted him to be my friend, I _needed_ him to be my friend and I told him something I shouldn’t have told him and afterwards, he said he didn’t want anything to do with me anymore. I’m just following his wishes. He’s going to have to do a lot more than trying to force his way back into my life unasked if he wants to be friends again. I don’t even know why he would want that, he was pretty clear back then. I don’t know what his endgame is here but I don’t really want to find out.”

“Fine,” Xabi gave in. “All I’m saying is, that you have to find a way to work with him during training and matches. For Stevie.”

Daniel snorted. “Yeah, we can’t disappoint Stevie, can we? That’s the most important thing here.”

“It just means a lot to him.”

“I know, Xabi. I’ll do my best, I promise. I don’t have to like the guy to play with him. It’s going to be okay.”

Xabi sighed. “If you say so.”

Daniel tried to give him a reassuring smile but one look at Xabi told him that it hadn’t worked. Truth be told, even he didn’t believe himself. Sure, he was going to try but it wasn’t going to be easy. Just because it had been two years since the end of his and Martin’s friendship didn’t mean it didn’t still hurt. Martin had been special to him, he had thought he could tell the other boy everything and when that was what he had done, it had backfired spectacularly. Daniel still remembered the way Martin had looked at him as if it had been yesterday and it had crushed him. That day, Daniel had sworn to himself that he would never let himself get hurt like that again, especially not by Martin but here they were and suddenly, Daniel had to fight every single day to protect himself; to stop it from happening all over again. The problem was, that even after all this time, after what had happened, he still cared about Martin. He tried to pretend he didn’t, tried to make everyone believe that he hated Martin but it had proven to be a lot harder than he had ever thought to just stop being friends with someone. But he had to keep trying. He just couldn’t let Martin back into his life again.

“Daniel? You okay?” Xabi’s voice interrupted his thoughts and Daniel focussed on his friend’s concerned look. “You spaced out a bit just now.”

Daniel managed a half-hearted smile. “I’m fine, Xabi. Just thinking about… things.”

He gripped the strap of his schoolbag tightly. “Come on,” he told Xabi. “We should get going again, we wouldn’t want to be late to class, would we?”

For a second, he was sure that Xabi was going to say something, prod for more answers but thankfully, Xabi decided to drop it and together, they walked the rest of the way to their classroom.

 

During class, Daniel’s thoughts kept straying back to that day two years ago. His gaze kept wandering over to where Martin was sitting away from his usual group of friends, staring blankly at the textbook in which they should be reading. It was clear that Martin’s thoughts were anywhere but in the classroom as well and Daniel couldn’t help but wonder if he was thinking about the same thing.

He had never told anyone what had happened between him and Martin. Anyone except for Finns. At first it had been because Daniel had been scared that telling his other friends what the fight had been about would prompt similar reactions but even after he had figured out that they wouldn’t suddenly start hating him like Martin had done, he still couldn’t bring himself to talk about it. It hurt too much.

The memory was still there, clear as day. He remembered how nervous he had been back then, how fast his heart had beat and how clammy his hands had felt.

Nevertheless, he had been absolutely determined to finally tell Martin. He had been thinking about telling him for a long time at that point but in the end, he had always chickened out. But not that day, he had decided. That day he was finally going to tell him.

He had waited until classes had been over for that day and he and Martin had gone to their usual spot on the grounds of their boarding school. Daniel couldn’t help the small smile when he remembered their spot. It hadn’t been anything special; it had been a bit out of the way, just a nice, grassy patch beneath a few trees where they could come to do their homework in peace. They had liked to pretend that no-one but them knew where that spot was, that they were hidden away from the world, their own personal Batcave but above ground and with 100% less superheroing.

Daniel recalled how distracted he had been the entire time and how Martin had finally put his textbook aside and looked at Daniel with raised eyebrows.

“Alright, spill it. What’s wrong?” he had asked and Daniel had taken a deep breath. This had been it. Now or never, he had told himself and looked up at Martin.

“I’ve got to tell you something,” he had said and Martin had leaned back against the trunk of the tree expectantly.

And then Daniel had told him. Had said the words that had effectively ended their friendship.

“I think I might be gay.”

 

Daniel was roughly jolted out of his thoughts by the bell and with a heavy sigh, he shook his head, trying to clear his head from any lingering memories. This whole thing was over and done with, it didn’t do anyone any good to keep dwelling on it.

But he still couldn’t help looking over at Martin again. He wished it had been different back then. That he had kept his mouth shut and never told Martin. They would still be friends if he hadn’t told him. But then again, it probably would have come out one way or another. He snorted slightly. ‘Come out’, quite literally.

He stuffed his books into his bag and headed out of the classroom, joining Pepe who was walking down the hallway, expertly dodging other students while his eyes remained firmly glued to his mobile phone with a dreamy look on his face.

Daniel nodded towards the phone in Pepe’s hands. “That your internet boyfriend?”

“Yup,” Pepe confirmed with a bright smile.

“So what, you guys are really going to do this cyber-relationship thing? Even though you’ve never met in person.”

“Sure,” Pepe said. “I don’t see why we shouldn’t.”

“Isn’t it weird though? I mean, it’s not like a proper relationship, is it?”

“I’m gonna stop you right there, Dan,” Pepe told him, the expression on his face suddenly serious. “Just because he’s in Spain and I’m here and we’ve never actually met doesn’t make this relationship any less valid. It’s a bit untraditional, sure, but it works. We message each other constantly, we skype almost every day and I don’t know, it’s just really nice. Álvaro gets me.”

“Álvaro? So that’s his name?”

The dreamy look was back. “Yes. Álvaro Arbeloa. His name alone sounds utterly amazing. And to be honest, it’s the best relationship I’ve ever had. Sure, it sucks that we can’t spend time together face-to-face but man, it’s still pretty great. We never run out of things to talk about and dude, Álvaro’s, like, super hot and if I don’t even really care that I can’t make out with him, then it must be love, right?”

Daniel grinned at his friend. “Love, huh? Already using the big l-word?”

Pepe shrugged. “So what if we do?”

“That’s pretty big, is all I’m saying.”

“Eh, it just feels right, I dunno. Anyway, we’re actually going to meet when I go back to Spain in the summer. Man, I can’t wait, this is going to be epic.”

Daniel smiled. “Well, it’s nice that at least one of us has a working relationship going on, no matter how weird it might be.”

Pepe elbowed him in the ribs. “I’ll give you weird, asshole. You’ll see how weird it is when you get the invitation for the wedding.”

“Oh good Lord,” Daniel said and pulled a face. “Don’t you think it’s a bit early to start thinking about weddings?”

“Daniel, my friend,” Pepe told him and slung an arm around his shoulders. “It is never too early to start planning the wedding of your dreams. In fact, I have not only already planned mine but I have also planned Stevie and Xabi’s.”

Daniel laughed. “Do they know about this?”

“Of course not,” Pepe scoffed. “What do you take me for? But when they’re finally ready to admit their love for each other, I will be there with my wedding folder, all set to go. It’s going to be a summer wedding at Anfield.”

“Where else?” Daniel snorted. Stevie’s love for his hometown football club, Liverpool FC, was well-known throughout the school. Actually, ‘love’ was putting it nicely. It was more of an obsession. An obsession, with which he had somewhat infected most of his friends, Xabi included. It was also the only thing Stevie and Carra regularly fought about. “Do you think you could actually get Carra to attend if you have the wedding at Anfield?”

Despite all of Stevie’s attempts to convert him, Carra stubbornly remained an avid Everton supporter, much to Stevie’s dismay. And every time the two teams played against each other, Stevie and Carra stopped talking to each other for days. It actually was pretty hilarious.

“He’ll have to,” Pepe replied. “He’s going to be Stevie’s best man, after all.”

“Sure, what was I thinking? So, you got my wedding planned out as well?”

Pepe snorted. “You’d need to get yourself a boyfriend for that first, Dan. And even if I had, I wouldn’t tell you about it. It’s supposed to be a surprise, after all.”

“Great, now I’m too scared to get married. Ever.”

Pepe gave him a mock outraged look. “Excuse me? My parties are awesome. Ain’t no party like a Pepe party, ‘cause a Pepe party don’t stop.”

“If you say so,” Daniel replied with a smirk and Pepe put a hand over his heart.

“You wound me, Daniel. One day, you’ll want to get married and then you’ll come to me and want me to plan it and I’ll say, well, you should have thought about that before you made fun of my wedding planner skills!”

“Who’s getting married?” Stevie asked as he caught up to them, looking at them with raised eyebrows.

“You and Xabi,” Pepe told him without missing a beat. “Summer wedding at Anfield, save the date.”

Stevie gaped at them, his mouth opening and closing in his best impression of a goldfish. “Xabi and I are not… We’re not… We’re not going to get _married_!” he exclaimed with a flushed face.

“Too bad,” Xabi piped up behind them. “I thought Pepe’s plan sounded kinda nice.”

Stevie’s mouth dropped open and he stared after Xabi completely aghast as the other boy walked past them with a smug expression on his face.

Stevie turned to Daniel and Pepe, his eyes wide and he gestured wordlessly to where Xabi had been a few seconds earlier.

“What,” he finally managed to get out. “The fuck?”

“Well, looks like at least one groom is already on board with it,” Pepe snickered and thumped Stevie’s back. “Don’t worry, Stevie, we’ll get you there as well.”

Stevie didn’t reply, instead he still stared completely dumbfounded at where Xabi had disappeared to.

“I think Xabi broke him,” Daniel told Pepe with a smirk.

“This is, like, the best day of my life,” Pepe replied with an awed look. “Wait till we tell Carra about this. He’ll be so pissed he missed it.”

“Stevie?” Daniel turned to the other boy who still hadn’t moved. He waved his hand in front of Stevie’s face a few times until he finally got a reaction.

Stevie jerked. “Hngh,” he said and next to Daniel, Pepe snickered.

“You okay, Stevie?” Daniel asked amused.

“I… Yeah, I’m, uh, fine,” Stevie mumbled. “I, uh…”

He trailed off, before he suddenly turned around and fled in the opposite direction of where Xabi had gone.

Pepe sighed and shook his head. “Man, if I had known we’d get this kind of reaction, I would have brought weddings up a lot sooner.”

Daniel nodded. “But I swear, if Stevie doesn’t do anything after this, I’m going to find him and kick his ass.”

“I’ll hold him down for you. Now come on, we need to find Carra. I have to tell him about this.”

Pepe grabbed his arm and dragged him away, looking around for Carra. Daniel sighed and let himself be manhandled. As long as he could think about Stevie and Xabi, he wouldn’t have to deal with any unwelcome thoughts about Martin Skrtel.

 

Carra had indeed been absolutely delighted when Daniel and Pepe had finally found him and told him about what had happened between Stevie and Xabi. The three of them had spent the rest of the afternoon debating whether that meant that Xabi had made the first move if this indeed led to the two of them finally getting together; purely for betting pool reasons, of course. They hadn’t only bet on when Stevie and Xabi would get together after all. No, there were several more sub-bets so they had to keep track of everything and this was an important matter to clear up. In the end they had decided to discuss that matter again as soon as it was clear Xabi’s comment had actually led to more. They didn’t want to get ahead of themselves after all. Also, Carra, who had bet on Stevie making the first move, had vigorously protested against making it count.

Finally, Daniel bid his goodbye from his friends and made his way back to his room. He wanted to get started on his homework before dinner and he couldn’t concentrate with Carra and Pepe arguing next to him.

On the way back to the room, he walked past the notice board on which Stevie had apparently posted the announcement of who had made the football team earlier that day.

Martin was standing in front of it, his gaze transfixed on his name on the short list, his hands gripping the strap of his shoulder bag tightly.

Daniel stopped in his tracks and looked at Martin who clearly hadn’t noticed his arrival. There was something about the look on Martin’s face that gave Daniel pause. Martin looked almost happy; it was the happiest Daniel had seen him ever since school had started and his stomach twisted slightly.

Watching Martin now, like this, almost made Daniel feel bad for how hard he tried to keep this from happening, to make Stevie change his mind about letting Martin on the team.

He took a step back and shook his head, trying to clear his mind before he walked away, choosing a different route to his room. As much as Martin had hurt him, as much as Daniel wanted to hate him, for now the other boy could have this moment of happiness without anyone ruining it for him.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yoooo, I am so sorry this has taken so long! First I was bummed about the news of Stevie leaving LFC (which I still am but now it's more of a dull, throbbing pain) and then real life happened BUT now I'm here to bring you a new chapter. Better late than never, eh? ;) At least it's one of the longer chapters AND we delve a little bit deeper into what happened between Daniel and Martin, ain't that exciting?  
> Anyhow, enough talk, let's get to the action! As always, any kudos/comments are super appreciated and will make my day, so you know what to do! ;)

When Daniel woke up on Wednesday morning, it took him a while to figure out why he felt even more aversion to getting up than was usual for him. He groaned and pulled the blanket over his face, trying his best to hide from the world and everything in it. Maybe if he stayed like that, he wouldn’t have to face the first football training session of the season. With Martin.

A low whine escaped him. This wasn’t fair. He didn’t w _ant_ to have to train with Martin. That meant interacting with the other boy and actually _talking_ to him and that sounded like the worst idea Daniel had had in _ever_.

“I hate you,” he told no-one in particular because even with the blanket pulled over his face, he knew that Martin wasn’t in the room. He never was when Daniel woke up and Martin being an early riser made him just that much more dislikeable than he already was.

He should just stay in bed. With a little bit of luck, they wouldn’t even notice he was missing. That was, of course, when the door to his bedroom slammed open.

“Happy football day!” he heard Stevie’s voice cry out, muffled through the blanket. Daniel groaned in reply.

“Get up, you lazy ass!”

And then someone was tugging on his blanket and really? That was just mean.

“Fuck off,” he grunted. “I’m not getting up today.”

“Of course you are,” Carra scoffed. “Didn’t you hear Stevie? It’s football day! First day of training!”

“Yes,” Daniel told the blanket that was still covering his face. “I am aware. However, I have decided to become a blanket burrito. And blanket burritos don’t play football and especially not with former best friends now turned asshole roommates. It is known.”

Stevie let out an annoyed sigh. “Well, blanket burritos also won’t help me win that damn trophy and if I don’t win that trophy I’m going to kick the asses all the blanket burritos I can find.”

Daniel lifted the blanket and blinked at Stevie.

“Now that is just unnecessary burrito cruelty, Steven. I am disappointed in you.”

“Are you fucking kidding me,” Stevie groaned in exasperation. “Get your ass moving, Agger!”

“Ugh, training isn’t even for, like, another nine hours or so,” Daniel whined. “And I don’t want to goooo. Martin’s going to be there!”

“Yes!” Stevie snapped. “Get used to it!”

“Don’t wanna,” Daniel moaned and he hear another sigh and then Stevie raised his voice.

“Yo! Xabi! Can you come here for a sec?”

“Nooo, not Xabi,” Daniel whimpered, wrapping himself up tightly in the blanket.

“What is it?” Xabi asked as he entered the room.

“Can you help us get him out of bed? He’s refusing to leave it.”

“Sure, no problem,” Xabi sighed, ignoring Daniel’s pathetic cries of protest.

“What you need,” Xabi told Stevie and Carra. “Is a firm hand.”

Then he grabbed one end of the blanket and gave it one hard tug that sent Daniel and the blanket crashing to the floor.

“See? This is how you do it.”

Daniel struggled to sit up and glared at Xabi.

“You suck,” he told Xabi. “Why do you always have to do that?”

“Because you refuse to get up otherwise and I really do have better things to do than spending hours trying to get you out of bed.”

“You are all horrible people.”

“I think we’ll live,” Carra said but still offered Daniel a hand to help him up. “Now stop whining about Martin and let’s go and get you some coffee.”

“Yay, coffee,” Daniel cheered feebly and let himself be dragged out of the room and towards the dining hall, only belatedly realizing that he was still in his pyjamas. His friends truly did suck.

 

He was sure that some higher entity had decided to screw with him that day because never had a day of classes gone by so fast and before he knew it, he was being towed to the dressing rooms by Pepe and Xabi who didn’t show the least bit of interest in his attempts at bribing them into letting him go.

“Come on,” he begged. “I’ll do your homework for a whole week!”

Xabi snorted. “No thank you. If I wanted to screw up my average grade, I wouldn’t need your help to do so.”

Daniel pouted. “You are so mean.”

“Yes, and at least ten times better in school than you are.”

Daniel wanted to argue, he really did but… Xabi did have a point there. So instead he turned to Pepe.

“Pepe! You’ve always been my favourite, you know that, right? You would never force me to do this, would you? Not you. Because you’re my favourite. And totally not at all mean like certain other Spaniards here whose name I won’t mention but it starts with an ‘X’ and ends in an ‘abi’.”

“Aww, I love you too. But I’m still not letting you skip on training.”

“Yeah? I was lying anyway. My favourite Spaniard is totally Antonio Banderas.”

“He was awesome in Spy Kids,” Pepe added unperturbed.

“I don’t know,” Xabi said. “I think I preferred him in The Legend of Zorro.”

“Dude, no. Nothing can ever top Spy Kids. Nothing.”

“Yo!” Daniel snapped. “Can we stop talking about Antonio Banderas and focus on my problem here?”

“First of all, you’re the one who started talking about Antonio Banderas. Secondly, you don’t have a problem. What you have is issues,” Xabi told him with a roll of his eyes.

“Hey!” Daniel cried out. “I don’t have issues!”

“Whatever makes you sleep at night, Dan.”

Daniel pouted and for a few minutes, they continued their walk to the dressing rooms in silence.

“And just so you know,” Daniel broke the quiet. “Spy Kids totally is better than Legend of Zorro.”

 

Stevie looked up when they entered the dressing room and gave Xabi and Pepe an approving nod.

“You got him to come,” he said. “Good.”

Daniel huffed and flopped down on one of the benches.

“Did you also get someone to make sure Martin comes? Because I’m here and guess who’s not? Martin.”

Stevie shrugged. “We’ve still got a few minutes before training starts. I’m sure he’ll come. He’s the one who wanted to join the team in the first place after all.”

“And what if he doesn’t?”

“Then Alberto will probably be happy to hear he’s made it on the team after all,” Stevie replied calmly but Daniel watched as with each minute they got closer to the time their training was set to begin, Stevie’s frown grew bigger and bigger. The rest of the team had already filed in, only Martin was still missing.

Stevie started to look a bit disappointed but Daniel was too busy imagining a world in which he wouldn’t have to deal with being on the same team as Martin because the other boy had decided to not show up for training. It was a beautiful thought. It would make everything so much easier, especially because then it would be _Martin’s_ fault and not his and his friends could finally get off his back.

Then the door slammed open and Martin rushed in. Daniel suppressed a sigh. Of course. His little fantasy world had been too good to be true to begin with.

“I’m sorry,” Martin said with an apologetic look towards Stevie, heaving slightly. “I got… held up.”

“Don’t sweat it,” Stevie said cheerfully. “You’re still right on time.”

Martin gave him a tight smile and sat down next to Glen as Stevie launched into a speech, detailing their goals for the upcoming season (as if they all didn’t already know what the goal was – win the tournament and get the trophy) and then starting on his plan for this training session and the ones still to come.

To be honest, Daniel had stopped listening after not even five minutes. He had been on this team for years now and Stevie had now been captain for quite a while as well. He knew Stevie’s speeches pretty much inside out, they all did. Well, with the exception of Rickie and Martin, their two new members. Rickie seemed to hang onto every word Stevie said, his eyes fixed on Stevie with an intent look on his face. Martin… Martin seemed distracted. He was listening, yes, but his gaze kept drifting off and sometimes it seemed as if he had to actively force himself to pay attention to Stevie. Martin looked drawn, exhausted, and it made Daniel wonder what exactly had held Martin up so that he had almost been too late for training with the team he had wanted to join so much.

Daniel thought back to the conversation between Martin and his sister Marcela he had overheard a while ago. He frowned slightly. He couldn’t help but speculate if that was what had happened. Not for the first time he wondered what was going on with Martin and his family; it had been a nagging sound in the back of his head ever since he had been a more or less unwitting witness to the phone call.

He narrowed his eyes a bit as he continued staring at the other boy, trying to figure out what was going on with Martin. The shadows under his eyes were prominent and he still looked far paler than usual. He also looked as if he had lost some weight, which, to be fair, wasn’t that much of a surprise seeing as he rarely ever saw Martin in the dining hall. Something in his stomach twisted. Actually, he hadn’t seen Martin in the dining hall at all and he only knew from Xabi that Martin at least always seemed to eat something for breakfast. But still, if that was all Martin ate… Maybe he should tell someone. He had been so absorbed in his own drama, he hadn’t even thought about that before. And no matter what had happened between him and Martin, no matter how much he wanted the other boy out of his life, he didn’t want him to actually _hurt_ himself.

“You do realize your staring is getting kind of obvious, do you?” Carra suddenly murmured on his left and Daniel started, tearing his gaze away from Martin and he turned to Carra with wide eyes.

“What?” he whispered back and Carra rolled his eyes.

“Dude, you’ve been staring at Martin for, like, five minutes straight now. If you keep that up, he’s going to notice soon. What’s going on?”

“I –”

In front of them, Stevie cleared his throat, glaring at them with his hands on his hips.

“I’m sure you two have very important things to discuss but if you could be so kind and actually listen, it would be very much appreciated.”

“Sorry, Stevie,” Daniel and Carra echoed and Carra gave him one last poignant glance before he leaned back again.

“I hope the rest of you are taking this a bit more serious than Daniel and Carra here,” Stevie continued and Daniel flushed slightly. “Because it is serious. Very serious. And if you don’t think so, there’s the door; I don’t need people who lack the right attitude here. This is going to be _our_ year and I’m going to need your absolute A-game from now on. Now let’s do this!”

 

To say that training didn’t go well would have probably been the understatement of the year. It didn’t really surprise Daniel but he and Martin just didn’t click. Of course they didn’t, most of the time they could barely stand being in the same room with each other so how could anyone really expect them to work well together on the pitch?

Frustrated, Stevie called an early end to the training and Daniel trudged off the field angrily. He had told Stevie that this wasn’t going to end well and yet, Stevie had insisted on letting Martin join the team. This was what he got for making stupid decisions like that.

The mood in the dressing room was tense and Daniel opted to avoid his teammates by attempting to drown himself in the shower. If their season went as well as training had, they were all doomed and Daniel really wouldn’t want to have to face Stevie if he had to leave school without a trophy.

By the time he finally emerged from the showers, most of the other boys had already left; Martin was nowhere to be seen. Daniel sighed and quickly got dressed before he waved goodbye to his remaining teammates.

He left the dressing room and started walking into the direction of the dorms when he walked past the equipment room and heard voices coming from it.

It wasn’t a strange occurrence and normally, Daniel wouldn’t have thought twice about it. Stevie often stayed behind a bit after everyone had left to check over the equipment; especially when he was angry about something and he certainly had every reason to be so after that disastrous training session. Most of the time, Carra kept him company. But that wasn’t Carra’s voice.

“I just wanted to thank you, Stevie,” Martin said and Daniel stopped in his tracks, staring at the door that was slightly ajar.

“What for?” he could hear Stevie reply and Daniel pressed his back against a wall as though that would prevent Stevie and Martin from seeing him should they decide to leave the equipment room. They always did that in the movies, so sue him.

“For letting me on the team. I honestly didn’t think you’d do that. I mean, I know you’re good friends with Daniel and Daniel and I… Well, we aren’t exactly on particularly good terms.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed,” Stevie said dryly then he sighed. “Look, Martin. First of all, letting you on the team was a group decision. We are a team after all, we decide such things together. And also, us, _me_ , choosing you had nothing to do with you personally. You were the best during try-outs so here we are, you’re happy, we’re happy, everyone’s happy.”

“Except for Daniel.”

“Except for Daniel,” Stevie conceded. “But he can suck it.”

Daniel’s mouth fell open in outrage. What the hell, Stevie?

“Somehow I don’t think he’d like to hear that.”

Daniel crossed his arms. He certainly didn’t need Martin to come to his defence.

“Yeah, well, tough luck. Doesn’t change that you were the best. And I want the best for my team.”

“What about Alberto?”

“What about him? He was good, you were better, end of the story and how often do I have to repeat that? Let me tell you, it’s getting pretty annoying.”

“I’m just saying that even though he might not have been as good, he was still pretty great and you wouldn’t have to worry about him and Daniel not playing well together because they hate each other.”

“Okay, first of all, today was only our first training so I’ll let it pass just this once but if you let this whole thing influence your performance on the pitch? I’m going to kick your ass. And secondly, I won’t deny that this whole thing you two have going on isn’t making this whole thing any easier and maybe I’ll regret letting you on the team one day. But I am willing to give it a try because I think that if you guys could just put whatever happened between you behind yourselves, you would be _amazing_ together. On the pitch. As defenders.”

“You really think so?”

“Yup,” Stevie confirmed. “You just need to finally talk this out and we’d be good to go!”

“Yeah, somehow I don’t think Daniel’s up for ‘talking it out’,” Martin replied, sounding dejected and what the actual fuck? Way to make it seem like Daniel was the reason why they weren’t friends anymore. This had all been Martin’s fault. That asshole.”

“Look,” Stevie told Martin. “I don’t know what happened between the two of you but –”

“You don’t?” Martin asked, sounding surprised.

“Nope. He never told us.”

“Huh.”

“Anyway, as I was saying, I have no clue what’s the problem but from what I gather, Daniel’s not so much angry as that he’s hurt and unfortunately, that’s something not as easily fixed.”

Great, and now Stevie was psychoanalyzing him. And since when was Stevie an expert on feelings?

“Oh,” Martin said and paused for a few seconds before he continued. “You think?”

“Actually,” Stevie replied. “Xabi told me those things. I have no idea about things like that.”

Ah. That explained it. Damn it, Xabi.

“Yeah, Xabi’s usually right about those things.”

“I know. He’s amazing like that.”

Daniel scoffed quietly. Seriously? This was not the time to start raving about Xabi. Stevie really needed to sort out his priorities.

“So what do you think I should do?”

“Dude, I haven’t the foggiest. If you need advice, ask Xabi. He’ll probably be more than happy to help him. We’re all quite sick of Daniel complaining about you all the time.”

Daniel glared at the door. That had been totally uncalled for. See if he ever listened to Stevie going on and on about how awesome Xabi was again.

“He’s complaining about me?”

“All the time. But that’s not even the worst thing.”

Jesus Christ, Stevie was such a goddamn blabbermouth.

“It’s not?”

“Nope. He’s like ‘OMG, Martin is such an asshole, boo-hoo’ and the next moment he’s all ‘But I actually still kinda care about him, I’m just too emotionally stunted to show it’. Emotionally stunted, that’s what Xabi calls it. And it’s, like, seriously mixed signals. Like, does he hate you? Does he not? And if he does, why won’t he stop talking about you? Like that one time when he overheard you on the phone to your sister, or something, and he was all worried and rattled and suddenly wanted to talk to you about it even though he always claims to hate you and –”

“Wait,” Martin interrupted Stevie’s babbling. “He did what?”

Oh crap.

 

The rest of the day was, once again, spent avoiding Martin. Daniel hadn’t stuck around to listen any further; he had heard Stevie saying something else but by then he had already been on his way out. Damn Stevie for being such a blabbermouth. Why had he brought that up in front of Martin? Martin hadn’t been supposed to know about that. But now he did and Daniel was absolutely dreading his reaction. He knew he would probably have to face him sooner or later; he couldn’t stay away forever, no matter how much he wanted to at that very moment.

Even though he was trying to avoid Martin, he still couldn’t quite take his mind off the other boy which seemed to be the story of his life lately. His thoughts wandered back to what he had resolved to do earlier that day. He still needed to talk to someone about what was going on with Martin.

And so he found himself standing in front of Mary’s door, knocking hesitantly. He was sure that Mary was the best person to go to with something like that. She was the good soul of the boarding school, she was always willing to lend a sympathetic ear when one of her boys had a problem and if anyone could help Martin, it was Mary.

Gently, he pushed the door open and stepped into the room.

“Hey Mary?” he asked and the housekeeper looked up at him with a bright smile.

“Daniel, my dear! Come on in! How are you?”

“I’m fine, thank you,” Daniel replied and closed the door behind him.

“Good, good. Now, what can I help you with? I’m guessing you’re not just here to keep me company, are you?”

“No,” Daniel admitted with a sigh. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Is everything okay, Daniel?” Mary asked concerned. “You’re not in trouble, are you?”

“No, it’s not about me. It’s about… It’s about Martin. Skrtel.”

Mary’s eyebrows rose. “Oh?”

“Yeah. It’s just… I’ve noticed something and it kinda had me worried.”

“Go on,” Mary encouraged him with a soft smile and Daniel ran a hand through his hair.

“He’s barely been eating anything?” Daniel blurted out. “Like, he always gets something for breakfast but then he never sticks around to actually eat in the dining hall but I haven’t seen him for lunch or dinner at all ever since the school year started and it looks as if he’s lost weight and I just don’t want him to make himself sick or something?”

“Daniel,” Mary interrupted his rant and put a hand over his. “Calm down, you don’t have to worry. Martin has been eating with me the whole time.”

Daniel blinked. He certainly hadn’t expected that.

“He… has?”

“Yes,” Mary’s smile slipped slightly. “He won’t tell me what’s wrong but apparently the poor boy has been having some problems with his friends here at school so he asked me if he could eat with me and the rest of the staff instead. I know I probably shouldn’t allow it but he’s a good kid and he seems to be going through some tough stuff so I thought it couldn’t hurt.”

“Oh. That’s, uh, good then.”

“But it’s so good of you that you care, Daniel. Martin talks about you quite a lot, you know.”

Daniel stared at her. Why the hell would Martin be talking to Mary about him? And what exactly was he telling her? It’s not as if they were on good terms.

“Really?” he asked feebly.

“Yes,” Mary confirmed, her smile brightening again. “Now, don’t tell anyone I said that but those boys Martin has been spending time with? That Andriy Voronin? I’m not supposed to play favourites, but I never liked that boy. And the other kids in his group aren’t much better. I never understood why someone as sweet as Martin would want to be part of that group.”

She shook her head, then fixated Daniel with a stern look. “But you didn’t hear that from me, okay?”

“Got it,” Daniel nodded.

“Good. You know, I’m glad Martin at least has you in his life. He is very lucky to have a friend like you on his side.”

Daniel nodded numbly. “Thanks, Mary,” he mumbled. “I should go now, I’ve got, uh, stuff to do.”

“Of course you do. Off with you, then!”

Daniel smiled tightly and quickly left. What the hell? Was Martin now pretending that they were actually _friends_? Because they most definitely weren’t but judging from Mary’s reaction, she clearly thought otherwise. And what was going on with Martin and his other friends? His _real_ friends and not just people he claimed to be friends with in front of others. Why was he distancing himself from them and eating lunch and dinner with the staff? God, what a mess.

It seemed like every time he tried to help Martin, he just ended up being faced with more problems. He should have stuck with his own resolution of not getting involved in whatever Martin’s drama was; everything would be so much easier if he had done that. But it was a little too late for that now; he seemed to be already right in the middle of it. Now he was involved and he needed to know what the hell was going on with Martin.

Determined, he set off in the direction of his room, fully intending to confront Martin about this. When he opened the door to the room, Martin was already there, looking up at him when he entered, a hard expression in his eyes.

“Good, here you are,” he said. “I was waiting for you.”

Daniel faltered a bit. “You were?”

“Yes,” Martin replied frostily. “I was talking to Stevie earlier.”

Daniel’s heart dropped into the pit of his stomach. “Oh?” Right, he had almost forgotten about _that_.

“It was interesting. Apparently you have been eavesdropping on my private conversations?”

Daniel gulped nervously, shifting from one foot to the other. “In my defence,” he said. “The door was open and you weren’t exactly quiet.”

“That still doesn’t mean you’re invited to stick around and listen to me talking to my sister without my knowledge!” Martin exploded, getting right up into Daniel’s face. “What the hell is wrong with you? Who does that?”

“I…” Daniel floundered, desperately trying to think of something to say. “I talked to Mary,” he finally burst out and closed his eyes in frustration. What the hell. He had _not_ intended to say that. In what world would mentioning that make the whole situation any better?

Martin blinked, looking slightly taken aback. “You what?”

Well, at least Martin wasn’t yelling anymore.

“I talked to Mary,” Daniel repeated. Now that he had started with this subject, he might as well see it through. That was what he had come to the room to do anyway. “About you.”

“Me.”

“Yeah. I was, um, kinda worried about you? Because something is obviously going on with you and I realized that I hadn’t seen you eating anything since this year started and I was worried that you –”

“That I what?” Martin interrupted him, seething and yes, this had been a bad idea. “That I have some kind of eating disorder?”

“Well, yeah. But Mary told me that you’ve been eating with her and while I’m glad you’re not starving yourself or anything, I’m still –”

“No,” Martin snapped. “What the fuck gives you the right to do something like that?”

“Sorry for actually possessing a shred of decency!” Daniel retorted angrily. “I just wanted to help!”

“But that’s just it, isn’t it? For two years you wanted nothing to do with me and now you suddenly can’t stop meddling with my life!”

“And whose fault is that? You were the one who started it, not me!”

“I know!” Martin yelled. “I know, okay? But you still don’t get to swoop in and pretend like you’re some knight in shining armour or anything! This is my life, back the fuck off!”

Daniel took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. “I am so sick,” he started, his voice trembling slightly. “I am so sick of this goddamn bipolar behaviour you’ve been showing ever since we started sharing a room. One moment you tell me you’re sorry for what happened and act like an actual decent human being and get me to kinda care about you again only to then turn around and get all mad at me when I try to help. It was the same thing when I overheard that conversation between you and your sister! All I wanted to do was make sure you’re okay even though I have every right to not give a single shit about you and you go and show me again just why we stopped being friends. Because you’re an asshole and you think you don’t need help from a, what was it? Right, a fag. Isn’t that what you wanted to say when we argued about that?”

Martin flinched visibly. “I… That’s not what I wanted to say.”

Daniel snorted. “Yeah, sure. Fuck you, Martin, really. Fuck you and your bigoted, homophobic ass. You deserve all the crap that’s apparently going on in your life.”

Martin stared at him for a few seconds before he deflated slightly. “Yeah, I guess I do.”

“Martin…” Daniel said but Martin was already out of the door, slamming it shut behind himself.

 

Daniel sighed and rubbed his eyes wearily, sinking down on his bed. This had not gone as planned. Why couldn’t he and Martin have one conversation without starting to argue almost immediately? There had been a time when they had been able to talk with each other for hours on end about anything and everything; they had been best friends and they had been able to tell each other everything, every little secret. Well, except for one. He thought back to what had happened that day two years ago.

“I think I might be gay,” he had said, anxiously looking at his friend. Martin had stared at him, mouth open and Daniel still remembered all too vividly what he had felt at that moment. His heart had been beating so fast he had thought it might burst out of his chest at any moment and he had felt close to puking. His hands had been clammy and trembling slightly.

“You what?” Martin had asked and then… Then he had watched as Martin’s expression slowly morphed into one of disgust and where Daniel’s heart had felt close to bursting only a short while ago, it had then felt as if it had stopped. In fact, it had seemed like the whole world had stopped and it had all come down to the look on Martin’s face.

“Dude,” Martin had said and had gotten up from where he had been sitting next to Daniel. “What the fuck?”

“I…” Daniel had mumbled but Martin had shaken his head.

“You can’t be a fag,” he had said. “That’s disgusting.”

And just like that, Daniel’s heart had shattered into a million little pieces.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *gasps* What's that? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! It's a new chapter! Whaaaaaaaaaat!  
> Sorry, I didn't update earlier but real life decided to kick my ass pretty badly and tbh, this fic was the least of my worries. But things have settled down now so hopefully, I'll have more time for writing again now. Though I gotta warn you, Idk how long it's going to take to get the next chapter ready because I'm going to try my hand at another Skagger fic as soon as I've posted this chapter. It's only going to be a oneshot though, so with some luck it won't take too long. ;) But I've had this idea stuck in my head for a week now ever since it came to me in the middle of the LFC - Burnley match and I need to get it out of my system^^ Ah, nothing inspires me quite as much as travelling to Liverpool...  
> Thanks for all your lovely comments and kudos and especially thanks for your patience! You guys are amazing. :)

The next few weeks passed in silence.

Football practice continued to be absolutely disastrous and with every mistake in their defence, Daniel could see Stevie getting more and more agitated and close to snapping, especially with the first match of the season growing closer and closer.

Outside the pitch, Daniel and Martin also weren’t talking to each other. Where Daniel had failed at the whole ignoring thing before, this time Daniel was pretty sure it would stick.

It wasn’t only him doing the avoiding and ignoring this time. Martin seemed just as keen on keeping out of his way, evading any and all interaction with Daniel. It was what Daniel had wanted the whole time but it still left a slightly bitter taste in his mouth, especially after what Mary had told him. But no matter what Martin had said to Mary, it was painfully obvious that he still didn’t want Daniel in his life.

 

It all changed when one day, Martin entered their room earlier than usual. Martin had once again taken to spending his days anywhere but in their shared room and normally only returned in time for lights out, which Daniel was extremely grateful for. Sharing a room with someone who couldn’t stand him and hated him for his sexuality was awkward at best and Daniel was glad for every single minute he could spend away from Martin.

But now it was barely five in the afternoon when the door slammed open and Martin all but staggered in.

Annoyed, Daniel looked up from his History textbook, aiming for a scathing glare at the other boy when he caught sight of him and promptly dropped his book in shock.

“Holy shit!” he exclaimed and shot up from the bed. “What the hell happened to you?”

Martin looked at him and Daniel took a sharp breath as his eyes swept over Martin’s face, taking in every last detail. The black eye, the purpling bruise on his cheekbone that stood out starkly against his pale skin and finally, the split lip that still had dried blood on it.

He rushed over to the other boy, ignoring the way Martin tensed up when he came too close.

“What the actual fuck?” he asked in appalled. “What _happened_?”

“You know,” Martin rasped, limping over to his bed, wincing with every move. “You kinda suck at this whole ignoring thing.”

“Who did this to you?” Daniel demanded to know, reaching out to touch the bruise on Martin’s cheekbone but he stopped short a few centimetres away from it.

“No-one,” Martin said gruffly and Daniel rolled his eyes.

“Oh sure, so do you usually beat up yourself?”

“Leave it, Daniel.”

“No!” Daniel snapped. “I won’t leave it! You can’t just come in here, looking like this and then expect me to just ignore it!”

“Why not? We’ve been perfectly fine ignoring each other those past few weeks! Since when do you care?”

“I’ve always cared!” Daniel burst out. “Why do you think I wanted to talk to you about that phone call with your sister? Or why I went to Mary because I was worried about your eating habits? I _care_ and that’s always been the problem with you.”

Martin sighed and sat down on his bed with another audible wince. “Can we please not argue about that right now? I’m seriously not in the mood.”

“Just tell me what happened!”

“I just got into a fight, that’s all!”

“Yes, I can see _that_ ,” Daniel replied, his patience starting to wear thin and Martin gave him an exasperated look.

“Then why did you _ask_?”

“I just want to know who did this to you! And why.”

“Well, tough luck then because it is absolutely none of your business.”

Martin turned his face away from Daniel and began to lie down on his bed, when he stopped, hissing in pain and clutching his ribs tightly.

Daniel let out an impatient sound. “Fine,” he said. “You don’t want to tell me, okay. But you need to go to the nurse and get yourself checked up.”

“I’m not going to the nurse,” Martin replied through gritted teeth.

“Yes, you are,” Daniel insisted. “Either you go voluntarily or I’ll just get her to come here. Your choice but either way, you are going to get this looked at. You really don’t sound good and I don’t want you to die on me tonight, that would make things really awkward and I’m not entirely sure people would believe me that I didn’t decide to kill you in your sleep.”

Martin rolled his eyes but sat up straight again anyway. “I’m not going to die because I got beat up a bit,” he said.

“Maybe not. But I’m not going to risk it. Now, are you coming with me or do I have to get the nurse?”

“Ugh, fine,” Martin groaned. “I’m coming.”

Daniel gave him a satisfied look and watched as Martin struggled back to his feet.

“You know,” Martin told him in a sour voice as they left the room. “I think I liked you better when you were still ignoring me.”

 

The walk to the school nurse was thankfully a short one and when they entered the infirmary, she glance up, took one look at Martin and said “Oh dear.”

She quickly rushed Martin over to one of the examination tables, urging him to sit down on it so she could properly check him up.

“Now, what happened to you?” she asked and Martin sighed in annoyance but still let her turn his head so she could get a better look at his bruised cheekbone.

“I got into a fight,” he said and the nurse gave him a disapproving look.

“You boys,” she sighed. “Always getting yourselves into trouble. Now, apart from the face, does it hurt anywhere else?”

Martin stubbornly shook his head and Daniel rolled his eyes.

“He was clutching his ribs earlier,” he told the nurse and Martin sent him a betrayed look.

“Thanks for tattling,” he hissed but the nurse tutted at him.

“He was absolutely right in telling me. Now, let me take a look at those ribs. Could you lift your shirt, please?”

Martin huffed but obeyed grudgingly, taking his shirt off completely, wincing slightly as he did so. Daniel flushed slightly and quickly looked away from where Martin was suddenly sitting shirtless on the examination table. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see the nurse lightly run her hands over Martin’s ribcage, expertly checking for swellings or dents.

“Okay,” she finally said. “You’re lucky, your ribs are only bruised, not broken.”

Martin pulled his shirt back on, effectively hiding the smooth expanse of his chest from Daniel’s eyes.

“So what does that mean?” he asked.

“It’s nothing serious,” the nurse replied, giving him a reassuring smile. “You need to ice the area, I’m going to give you something for that in a minute. I’m also going to give you some ibuprofen for the pain. Apart from that, all you can do is rest and try to manage your breathing. I’m writing you a note for your classes so you’ll be excused from them for tomorrow. If it hasn’t gotten any better by then, come see me again. You also should refrain from any sports or other strenuous activities for at least two days. As for the breathing exercises, try taking a deep breath whenever you can. If it hurts too much and you can’t manage one deep breath per hour, you should also come and see me because then it might be more serious. Also, do some breathing exercises. Inhale slowly for three seconds, hold your breath for another three seconds and then exhale. You should repeat that for a few minutes once or twice a day. You also shouldn’t smoke but seeing as that’s against school policy anyway, I would hope that that’s not an issue.”

“It’s not,” Martin said and the nurse hummed in satisfaction before handing him a plastic ice bag and some ibuprofen.

“If you do what I just told you, you should be fine soon. But as soon as you notice that the pain doesn’t go away or even gets worse, come see me immediately.”

She turned to Daniel. “I want you to watch him,” she told him. “As I said, a bruised rib usually isn’t anything serious but it would be good if he had someone looking after him a bit. Make sure that he really does rest and let me know if you think he’s in more pain than he lets on.”

Daniel nodded. “Sure, I’ll do that.”

“Good. Off you go then. And don’t get into any more fights, would you? We don’t want you to have to come here with a more serious injury, do we?”

Martin shook his head and slid off the examination table, before shortly thanking the nurse and leaving the room. Daniel waved goodbye and quickly followed Martin, catching up with him in the hallway.

“You don’t really have to look after me, you know?” Martin said and Daniel snorted.

“Sure I do. If it weren’t for me you wouldn’t have gone to the nurse at all and where would that have left you, Mr Bruised Ribs?”

“It would have left me perfectly fine in my bed,” Martin replied curtly. “Because as we were told just now, a bruised rib is nothing some ice and rest can’t cure.”

“Yes, but you didn’t know it was a bruised rib, did you? It could’ve been broken just as well!”

“But it wasn’t!”

“But it could have been!”

“We are so not having this argument right now,” Martin told him in a decided voice.

“Just admit that it was a good idea to go to the nurse.”

“I will admit no such thing.”

“You are such a stubborn asshole,” Daniel huffed with an exasperated shake of his head. “Now come on, we should get you back to our room. You can pop some ibuprofen then and try to sleep it off. Maybe we should also try those breathing exercises while we’re at it.”

“If that’s what it takes to get you to stop mothering me…” Martin muttered which Daniel decided not to deign with a reply.

 

Back in their room, Daniel made Martin take the ibuprofen and forced him to lie down on his bed.

“Sleep,” he told him and Martin rolled his eyes.

“You can’t tell me what to do.”

Daniel sorted. “You just have to be difficult, don’t you.”

“It’s my only goal in life,” Martin replied dryly and Daniel actually laughed at that. God, he couldn’t remember the last time he had had such a civil conversation with the other boy.

“I’ll be here when you wake up,” he told Martin who had closed his eyes.

“You don’t have to,” Martin mumbled, sounding exhausted.

“I know,” Daniel answered but settled down back on his bed anyway, picking up his History textbook where he had left it earlier.

“Thank you,” Martin said suddenly, his voice already a bit drowsy. “I wish you were my friend.”

Daniel stared at the other boy.

“What,” he said, unsure of how to react. What the hell had prompted Martin to say something like that? Was it the pain? The ibuprofen? Or had he just gone completely crazy?

“You were a good friend,” Martin continued, eyes still closed. “And I screwed it up so much. ‘m sorry. I jus’… Y’never would’ve beaten me up.”

“Who did beat you up?” Daniel prodded gently, looking at Martin with wide eyes. He certainly hadn’t expected something like this.

“Andriy ‘n the others,” Martin replied. “They hate me.”

Daniel’s heart dropped, remembering what Mary had told him about Martin having trouble with his friends. “I’m sure they don’t,” he finally managed to get out.

“Yes they do,” Martin’s voice was barely audible anymore. “But that’s okay, I deserve it for what I did to you…”

“Martin…” Daniel said but trailed off. He had no idea what to say. Luckily for him, Martin’s breath evened out shortly after that and soon enough, he was asleep, leaving Daniel alone with his confused thoughts.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for that joke, please don't hate me. Here, have the actual new chapter.
> 
> [EDIT: April Fool's Day is over, so the joke chapter's gone and we're back to business as usual. Thanks to all of you for not hating me too much for that Rick Roll. ;)]

After that, they found themselves in a weird state of limbo. Daniel had no idea what to make of the admission that Martin’s own friends had been responsible for the condition he had been in and Martin seemed to have no memory of what he had told Daniel the night before. Or maybe he did because he had been avoiding Daniel ever since. Daniel wasn’t sure if that was directly related to Martin’s admission or if it was due to a general awkwardness after Daniel had essentially patched Martin up even though they had both been hell-bent on ignoring each other’s very existence.

Either way, at least this time the whole avoiding thing felt more awkward than hostile now. The problem with that was, though, that Daniel had no idea where they were standing right now.

He had helped Martin, yes, and he had also been a bit worried – still was, to be honest – and Martin had actually let him help this time, no matter how reluctantly.

It was confusing. Daniel’s _feelings_ were confusing. Then again, they had been for a far longer time already. But this time… Daniel sighed and gently banged his head on the library table he was sitting at. He didn’t like being confused and he disliked being confused about _Martin_ even more. What the hell was going on in that boy’s life? And why couldn’t Daniel stop _caring_?

“I don’t know what that table’s ever done to you,” Stevie’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “But you should probably stop before you lose your last remaining brain cells.”

“Fuck you,” Daniel mumbled, refusing to look up at Stevie.

“Yeah, no, I think I’ll pass.”

Daniel could hear the scraping of a chair on the floor and the chair creaked slightly when Stevie sat down on it.

“Your loss,” he said to the tabletop, making Stevie snort.

“Right. Anyway. So, did you finally decide to go berserk on Skrtel, or what?” Stevie asked and at that, Daniel finally lifted his head off the desk and looked up, blinking at Stevie a few times.

“What?” he asked after a few seconds of confused silence.

“Yeah, he just came to me and told me he’d have to sit out our next training session because of a bruised rib or something? So did you? Did you finally try to kill him?”

Daniel rolled his eyes. “Of course not. The hell is wrong with you?”

“Oh. Good. Because I really can’t tolerate attempted murder in my football team.”

“Trust me, Stevie, if I _had_ tried to kill him, no-one would have ever found the body.” Daniel told Stevie who stared at him for a couple of seconds.

“Dude. What the fuck? Is that what happened to Finns? He didn’t transfer, did he? You killed him!”

“Totally,” Daniel nodded, doing his best to look menacing. “And now that you know my dirty little secret, I will have to kill you too, Steven.”

“Oh the horror!” Stevie gasped in mock terror. “But I had so much to live for!”

“Well, you should have thought of that before you decided to get in my way.”

“You two are fucking idiots,” came Carra’s voice from behind Daniel and a few seconds later, he walked into Daniel’s view as he sat down next to Stevie. “So, what did you do to Martin, Dan?”

Daniel threw his hands up in the air. “I didn’t do anything to him! In fact, if it weren’t for me, he would probably be dead now.”

Carra’s eyebrows shot up. “Really now?”

“Well, maybe not dead exactly,” Daniel amended. “But we wouldn’t have known that! The rib could have been broken instead of just bruised but because he refused to see the nurse we never would have known and if it had been a broken rib he –”

“Dan!” Carra shut him up. “We get it! So, what happened?”

“Hell if I know,” Daniel shrugged. “At some point he just came into our room yesterday, looking all banged up and obviously in pain and he wouldn’t talk to me and I practically had to force him to go and see the nurse and even after he finally let me drag him there, he _still_ wouldn’t tell me what happened to him. You know how great Martin is with sharing his feelings and stuff.”

Stevie and Carra nodded in agreement and for a second, Daniel considered telling them about what Martin had said right before he had fallen asleep the day before. That it had been his own friends who had done this to him. But it wasn’t really any of their business and Daniel was sure Martin wouldn’t want them to know. Hell, he hadn’t even really wanted Daniel to know. The only reason why he had told him was because he was already half asleep and woozy on painkillers. And Daniel didn’t even have the whole story himself so he wasn’t about to go around and blab what little he knew to everyone. For once. What? He learned from his mistakes!

“And he didn’t tell you anything at all?” Stevie prodded.

“The only thing he told me is that he got into a fight and that he didn’t want to talk about it. Sorry, I can’t really tell you anything more. But the nurse said he would be fine in a few days if he did what she told him to, so you don’t need to worry.”

Stevie huffed and sat back, his arms crossed. “I just don’t like it when someone messes with my team.”

“Well, unless you wanna take it up with Martin and ask him directly, I’m afraid there’s nothing you can do. And I highly doubt that, if you did, Martin would tell you anything.”

Stevie made a frustrated sound. “Man, everything would be so much easier if people just started talking to each other, you know?”

Daniel’s mouth fell open at that and he and Carra shared an incredulous look, both thinking the same thing. Stevie really was the one to talk, what with how he had been mooning over Xabi for years now without ever saying or doing anything about it. Maybe Stevie should start taking his own advice.

“But that would mean we’d have to talk about _feelings_ ,” Carra said, the first of them to recover, pretending to be disgusted at the mere thought.

“Ugh, yeah,” Daniel chimed in. “We can’t have that, can we? I mean, where would that leave us? A year without drama? Boo, you whore!”

“I wish we could all get along like we used to in middle school. I wish I could bake a cake filled with rainbows and smiles and everyone would eat and be happy.” Stevie replied with a smirk and next to him, Carra rolled his eyes.

“You guys are such losers.”

“Hey, he just has a lot of feelings!” Daniel snickered.

“Oh my God, why am I even friends with you? I refuse to be friends with anyone who can quote _Mean Girls_ word by word.”

“Okay, first of all?” Daniel said. “ _Mean Girls_ is a modern classic. And secondly, the fact that you immediately knew which movie we were quoting doesn’t really help your case.”

“You guys _forced_ me to watch that stupid film! Several times, actually. I still haven’t forgiven you for that.”

“He secretly loves it,” Stevie told Daniel in a conspiratorial voice and Daniel nodded.

“Totally.”

“Anyway,” Carra interrupted them loudly, glaring at them. “Back to the subject, okay? So you made Martin go to the nurse?”

Daniel sighed. “Yeah, I did.”

“I thought you two were back to ignoring each other?”

“We were! But what did you expect me to do? Someone has to make sure that idiot doesn’t just die on us! And he obviously can’t take care of himself.”

“So what now? Are you talking to each other again?”

Daniel shrugged. “No idea. Just because I showed a moment of compassion, doesn’t mean I suddenly like him again and all is forgiven and forgotten. It’s not. But dude, yesterday was… weird. I have no idea what’s going to happen now.”

“Ugh, the amount of drama there is between the two of you is nauseating. It’s like watching a stupid soap opera. Only worse because it’s _real life_.”

“You were the one who asked,” Daniel pointed out and Stevie snickered.

“He’s got a point there, Carra.”

“I’m just showing interest in your life because I’m a good friend,” Carra replied annoyed. “But I can stop if you want me to.”

“Aww, Carra, don’t be like that. We’re only teasing. We know that you actually love soap operas and are just too manly to admit it.”

“You guys suck,” Carra told them and got up. “I’m going to find other friends. _Better_ friends.”

Daniel and Stevie laughed together as they watched Carra walk away but then Stevie got up as well.

“Yeah, I should probably go too,” he said. “I promised Xabi I’d meet with him.”

“Oh did you know?” Daniel asked with a smirk. “You finally taking him up on that offer to get married at Anfield?”

Stevie promptly blushed a bright shade of red.

“I, um, I…” he stammered before he turned on his heels and fled the library, leaving a snickering Daniel behind.

 

With a snort, Daniel turned his attention back to the Maths homework he had been trying to do when he had come to the library. Instead he had sat there and thought about Martin and had then been interrupted by Stevie and Carra. But now he was going to do it, no matter what.

Resolutely, he opened the book and stared blankly at the problems he was supposed to solve. God, he absolutely despised Maths. He was pretty sure Maths had been invented by the devil himself, just to torture students like him.

As such, he was almost glad when he got interrupted again by someone sitting down in the chair Stevie had vacated only a few minutes ago.

Daniel looked up and did a double take. Sitting in front of him was none other than Martin Skrtel himself. Daniel blinked. He hadn’t expected that.

“Hi,” Martin said, nervously fiddling with his hands and Daniel raised his eyebrows.

“Hi,” he replied, closing the Maths book again. He had accepted that he probably wouldn’t get around to doing his homework that day. “What are you doing here?”

Martin sheepishly scratched the back of his head. “I wanted to talk about yesterday,” he said and Daniel looked at him quietly, waiting for Martin to continue which he did after a few seconds of awkward silence. “I wanted to thank you, first of all.”

“What for?”

“For making me go and see the nurse. For looking after me. You didn’t have to do that. In fact, I wouldn’t have been surprised if you hadn’t.”

“What, you think I’m really that much of an asshole that I wouldn’t help someone who was obviously hurt?” Daniel asked slightly pissed and he crossed his arms.

Martin flushed slightly. “I… No, that… That’s not what I meant,” he said quickly, fumbling slightly with his words. “I know you’re not an asshole. I meant that you have every right to not help me ever again and I wouldn’t have blamed you if you didn’t. But you did and that obviously makes you a better person than me.”

“Obviously,” Daniel agreed and Martin floundered a bit.

“What I said yesterday... Before I fell asleep…” Martin trailed off. Ah. So Martin did remember after all. “I meant it, you know? You _were_ a great friend. You still are even if we’re not actually friends anymore. But yesterday, that was the third time you tried to help me, no matter how weird and slightly inappropriate the first two times were –”

“Hey!” Daniel interrupted, slightly offended. Just because he had stuck his nose into something that wasn’t really his business…

“And I don’t know why you keep doing it,” Martin continued unperturbed. “But thank you. Even with how things are now, you’re still the best friend I’ve ever had. Which is kinda sad but you know…”

Martin laughed nervously and Daniel uncrossed his arms.

“That we aren’t friends anymore really is your own fault,” he said and Martin ducked his head.

“I know,” he said. “And for what it’s worth, I am sorry about what happened when you… About how I reacted when you told me you’re…”

“Gay?” Daniel suggested wryly and Martin nodded.

“Yeah. That. I’ve regretted that for a long time but I… I didn’t know how to make amends. I… still don’t really know.”

Daniel sighed. “I’m going to be honest with you here, Martin. I don’t know it either.”

Martin nodded, looking glum. “I guess I deserve that. Just… We were fifteen, Daniel. And suddenly there you are, telling me this and I… I was scared, I guess? I didn’t know how to handle it.”

“So you decided to yell at me, tell me I was sick and disgusting and that I should stay the hell away from you?”

Martin turned red. “I probably could have handled that better.”

Daniel snorted. “Probably.”

“I’m not trying to make excuses or make it seem less bad than it is,” Martin continued, dragging a hand through his short hair. “But my parents raised me to think that… homosexuality,” Martin still stumbled over the word, “is wrong and a sin and when you told me that you thought you were gay…”

Daniel nodded. “Look, I get it, I think? But it doesn’t really make things any better.”

“I know,” Martin said in a small voice.

“Especially not after you waited two years to have that conversation with me. I’ll admit that I didn’t make it easy for you but what happened between us… That doesn’t just go away with a ‘sorry’.”

“I didn’t expect it to,” Martin told him. “But I thought it was long overdue and maybe a first step in the right direction.”

“Maybe,” Daniel conceded and Martin gave him a small smile. Daniel wondered what had changed Martin’s mind. He knew the Skrtels were very religious and he knew how much that had influenced Martin’s upbringing so he understood what Martin had told him. But why and when had he decided that apparently, Daniel being gay wasn’t so bad after all? Daniel was about to ask just that but then decided against it. Did it really matter? So instead, he asked something different.

“Yesterday you told me that Andriy Voronin and his little clique of fellow assholes were responsible for beating you up,” he stated and noticed Martin tense up. “Why would they do that? I thought you were friends?”

Martin shrugged with a bitter smile. “I got what I had coming, apparently. Karma. It’s a bitch, or so I’ve been told.”

What the fuck was that supposed to mean?

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” Martin replied and Daniel rolled his eyes. “We’re not friends anymore and they thought I could do with getting a bit roughed up.”

“Roughed up?” Daniel echoed disbelieving. “Bruising someone’s ribs is not ‘roughing up’!”

“It was an accident. I’m sure they didn’t mean for it to get so bad.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Daniel stared at Martin, stunned. “What the hell is going on with you, Martin?”

The moment he said that, he knew he had pushed too far. He could practically watch Martin closing off, his face taking on a hard expression.

“I told you,” he said. “It’s nothing. And even if it was something, it’s still none of your business.”

“Why do you keep doing this?” Daniel exclaimed in frustration. “Like, five minutes ago you thank me for my attempts at helping you and now you do this again! Bipolar much?”

“Please stay out of this, Daniel,” Martin said and got up. “I said that I appreciate you trying to help me but that doesn’t mean I actually want or need your help.”

With that, Martin stiffly walked out of the library and Daniel stared after him with his mouth wide open. What the ever-loving fuck had that been? He shook his head. Jesus Christ, talking to Martin was worse than walking on a minefield. He just didn’t get that boy.

 

The conversation with Martin hadn’t really improved the overall situation much. Sure, Daniel had maybe finally admitted to himself that he didn’t hate Martin as much as he liked to pretend but they still weren’t friends and Martin was still being a difficult asshole. A difficult asshole who, granted, had his moments.

Daniel let out a sigh. He had really thought he and Martin had been getting somewhere. He hadn’t been ready to forgive him and really let him back into his life yet but maybe they could have gone back to at least being civil to each other. But then Martin had had to go and screw it up again by getting all stand-offish. It was frustrating to say the least and Daniel found himself somewhat agreeing with Stevie. Everything would be so much easier if certain people just manned up and talked about what was going on in their lives.

It wasn’t as if Daniel wanted a tear-filled heart-to-heart or anything, he just wanted Martin to stop shutting everyone out. It couldn’t be healthy to keep what he was going through bottled up the whole time, especially not since Daniel seemed to be the only person Martin could consider a friend at the moment _even though they were far from actually being friends_. And really, what did that say about Martin? And what did it say about Daniel that he just couldn’t bring himself to stop caring and getting involved in whatever was going on with Martin?

He snorted. God, they were both so completely and utterly screwed up.

As it was, Daniel was back to having no idea where he and Martin were standing. They’d had whatever the day before had been, they’d had that talk in the library but where did those things leave them? He sighed deeply. He definitely hadn’t signed up for his life to be so freaking complicated.

 

One good thing had come out of that whole mess with Martin getting beaten up, however. While things still were more than a little bit problematic in their personal interactions, they at least seemed to have reached some kind of consensus when it came to football. Sure, they still weren’t the perfect partnership, they still weren’t as good together as Daniel and Finns had been, but they had stopped practically ignoring each other in favour of doing their own thing. They actually started communicating on the pitch and since Martin’s return from his forced break due to his bruised ribs, they had improved steadily, much to Stevie’s delight.

“See,” he told Daniel when they finished up after training. “This is why I didn’t throw either of you off the team when you two were too stupid to get past this thing you have going on. I knew you would be good together. And this is why I’m the captain.”

“Oh Jesus,” Daniel said and rolled his eyes. “I’m almost tempted to go back to how it was before, if only to deflate your giant ego.”

Stevie gasped in indignation. “You wouldn’t dare!”

“Oh, I don’t know…” Daniel teased Stevie with a grin. “Maybe I like seeing you cry.”

“Dude, don’t even joke about screwing up this season for me,” Stevie said. “I told you all what will happen if you do.”

“You’ll cut us, we know,” Carra replied with an exasperated expression. “You’ve threatened us with that so many times, I’ve lost count.”

“Well, obviously it hasn’t really stuck yet or I wouldn’t have to do it anymore.”

“Dan, just tell him you won’t intentionally lose us that trophy, will you?” Carra told Daniel. “Or else he’ll go off on a tangent again and we all have to listen to how important this is to him _again_ and I don’t think I can sit through another one of those speeches.”

“Just because I’m apparently the only one here who cares about finishing this year with a success…” Stevie sulked and Carra rolled his eyes.

“We do care about that, Stevie. We just don’t feel the need to mention it at any given opportunity. Now, Dan, if you could please be so kind before Stevie pops a vessel.”

Daniel smirked but eventually complied. “I, Daniel Munthe Agger, hereby solemnly swear that I will not intentionally play badly just to spite you.”

“Thank you. Are you happy now, Stevie? He won’t do anything.”

“I can’t believe you actually thought I would throw our chances intentionally,” Daniel told Stevie who shrugged.

“I didn’t really think you would but one can never be cautious enough.”

“Constant vigilance!” Pepe, who had only just joined them with Martin in tow, crowed.

“Exactly,” Stevie grinned at the other boy. “Anyway, I’m really happy you two work better together now. If I had known it would only take Martin getting beaten up, we would have done that sooner!”

Daniel and the other three boys stared at Stevie and Daniel’s mouth fell slightly open.

“Dude,” he said and shook his head in disbelief. “You did not just say that.”

“Ignore him,” Xabi’s voice came from behind them and then he appeared next to Martin, giving him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “That’s what I always do. Sometimes, Stevie’s just an insensitive asshole. He doesn’t really mean it. We don’t want you to get beaten up, I promise.”

Martin’s smile was slightly shaky and forced. “That’s good to know,” he said and Daniel took his chance to smack Stevie up the back of his head.

“The hell is your damage, Gerrard?” he asked and Stevie winced, rubbing the spot Daniel had just hit.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” he defended himself. “Of course I don’t want Martin to get any more hurt. But it’s still nice to see that it at least led you guys to resolve your issues you have with each other.”

Daniel frowned and looked over to Martin who flushed slightly and looked away from Daniel, carefully avoiding his eyes.

“Yeah, sure,” he muttered.

 

That night was the first night, Martin showed up in the dining hall for dinner.

Daniel was too busy talking to Pepe to notice Martin at first but when the other boy suddenly trailed off and looked at something behind Daniel, he curiously turned around to see what had caught Pepe’s attention and saw Martin nervously walking up to their table, not looking at anything or anyone as he came nearer. He stopped at their table and his eyes anxiously flitted to Daniel a few times before he took a deep breath.

“Do you mind if I sit with you guys?” he rushed out, looking as if he was regretting ever saying anything the moment the words left his lips.

“Sure,” Xabi said with a smile, scooting closer to Stevie (who looked positively delighted at that) to make room for Martin who gave him a relieved look and gingerly sat down next to Xabi.

“Thanks,” he said gratefully and he took another deep breath and Daniel could practically see the tension leaving his body.

“Fellow teammates are always welcome at this table,” Stevie told Martin, leaning over Xabi and Daniel was pretty sure that he only did that to get even closer to the Spaniard. God, they were pathetic.

“Yeah,” Pepe said cheerfully. “And we’ve been wondering where you always disappeared to. We haven’t seen you in the dining hall ever since school started.”

Martin shifted awkwardly, looking intently down at the table. “I’ve been around,” he replied vaguely. Daniel could see the curiosity still sparkling in Pepe’s eyes and quickly, he decided to change the subject.

“So, did you guys already do the chem homework?” he asked. He knew this hadn’t been his best attempt at taking the attention away from Martin and judging from the looks Pepe and Xabi gave him, they had seen right through him.

“Of course I did,” Xabi said smoothly and at that, Pepe’s gaze shifted away from Martin.

“Didn’t expect any less from you, Xabs,” Pepe told Xabi with a grin. “You nerd.”

“I am not a nerd, I just know better than to procrastinate until the last possible moment unlike other people on this table.”

Daniel breathed a sigh of relief, internally thanking Xabi for letting it slide and Pepe for going along with it for now. He looked over to Martin and the other boy gave him a timid smile that left Daniel’s stomach in knots and he quickly turned away again, breathing deeply and trying to get rid of that stupid feeling in his gut. He and Martin weren’t friends, he needed to remind himself. They were nothing at all. That had been made abundantly clear on various occasions.

He forced himself to smile and tuned back into the conversation his friends were having. Xabi and Pepe were still arguing about when the best time to do your homework was and Stevie and Carra were talking about football. Of course. What else.

“All I’m saying,” Steve argued, “is that if you support Everton, you’ve got no taste and there’s obviously something wrong with you.”

Daniel snorted. Sometimes he really wondered how Stevie and Carra’s friendship worked.

“Need I remind you, Steven, that Everton actually existed before Liverpool? Basically, Liverpool was formed out of the Everton rejects so if I were you, I’d be careful with what I say.”

Stevie gasped. “If Liverpool are the Everton rejects, then what does that say about Everton, that we’re always ahead of them in the league, huh? Must suck if your own “rejects” turn out better than you.”

Carra scowled. “There’s more to a club than the trophies they win.”

“Sure,” Stevie said. “You know who always talks like that? Losers. Losers who never win anything. But if it helps you sleep at night…”

With Carra still bristling, Stevie turned to Martin.

“What about you?” he asked and Martin looked up at him with a wide-eyed expression when he realized that Stevie was, in fact, talking to him. “Liverpool or Everton?”

“Oh, um,” Martin stammered, looking helplessly over to Daniel who could do nothing more than shrug. There really wasn’t much of a way to win here. “I don’t really follow the Premier League all that much?” Martin finally continued.

“Aww, come on, you’ve got to have a preference!” Stevie insisted and really, the terrified look on Martin’s face was actually kind of funny. They’d all been through that specific conversation before.

“Uh, Liverpool then, I guess?”

Stevie turned to Carra, a victorious expression on his face. “See? Martin also likes Liverpool better. And do you know why? Because he’s got _taste_.”

“Dude, he just said that to get on your good side.”

“He did not! Martin, tell him you didn’t!”

“Uh…” Martin seemed to shrink in on himself and Daniel rolled his eyes, taking pity on the other boy.

“How about we all just agree that we hate Manchester United the most?” he suggested and was immediately rewarded with twin looks of disgust on Stevie and Carra’s faces.

“Ugh, Manchester United,” Stevie said. “They’re the _worst_.”

“Totally,” Carra agreed and then they were off in a discussion about just why they hated Manchester United so much and Daniel turned to Martin who smiled gratefully at him.

“Thanks for the save,” he said and Daniel shrugged.

“Eh, it was nothing. I know how those two can get. If you’re not used to it, it can get pretty overwhelming. But you’ll get used to it soon enough, they’re like that all the time.”

“Yeah, I remember that,” Martin said and Daniel had almost forgotten that there had indeed been a time when Martin had been hanging around with the guys sometimes as part of being Daniel’s friend and he shifted awkwardly. Martin seemed to have picked up on how uncomfortable his comment had made Daniel and he flushed slightly.

“Sorry,” he said quietly but Daniel shook his head. He couldn’t expect Martin to never mention what had been before.

“No, it’s okay,” he said. “Anyway, you just need to learn how to handle Stevie and Carra when they start on that whole Liverpool versus Everton rivalry thing. Remind them of a common enemy. You can pick between Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea, all three will get them going. But don’t ever suggest more than one team at the same time because _that_ will only end up in them arguing about which team is the worst in their opinion which is honestly just tiring.”

“I’ll try to remember that,” Martin said and with a small smile, Daniel turned back to his food. It was so confusing how easy it could be to talk to Martin. It was almost starting to feel like the old times and Daniel couldn’t let that happen again. This path could only lead to more hurt, something he really wasn’t prepared for.

 

Martin left not long after that, not sticking around after he had finished eating but Daniel supposed that it was more than could have been expected. Given that this had been the first time Martin hadn’t eaten with the staff this school year because he had some kind of problem with his friends, he had done quite well.

When Daniel returned to their shared room, Martin was there, looking up at him as he stepped into the room.

“Hey, you’re back,” he said, giving him an uncertain smile. “Can I, um, talk to you for a second?”

Daniel barely suppressed a groan. God, how was this is life? Why did everyone suddenly want to _talk_? They had all gone years without having emotional heart-to-hearts and had survived just fine and now all everyone wanted to do was to talk about his feelings and all that crap. Daniel didn’t _want_ to talk about his feelings; that usually just made everything much more complicated, no matter what Xabi said.

But he forced himself to smile anyway and sat down on his bed, facing Martin. “Sure. What’s up?”

Martin took a deep breath. “I just wanted to apologise.”

Daniel blinked. He hadn’t expected that. “What?” he asked confused and Martin looked away from him.

“Just… I should have asked you before I came to join you guys tonight. I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable or anything.”

For a few seconds, Daniel gaped at Martin, not sure what to say. Then he shook his head and closed his mouth.

“Dude,” he said in a disbelieving voice. “You can eat dinner with whoever you like. What does that even have to do with me?”

“I… I just thought because they’re _your_ friends and, well, you don’t like me very much which I get, really, but –”

Daniel raised a hand, effectively putting an end to Martin’s nervous rambling before it could get worse. “Okay, first of all? My friends are their own people and if they didn’t want you to sit with us, they would have said so. What happened between us doesn’t really have anything to do with them and they are absolutely capable of making their own decisions. As are you. If I’d had a problem with you sitting with us, I would have told you or I would have sat somewhere else myself.”

“Oh,” Martin said, sounding slightly stunned. “I… So you really didn’t mind?”

Daniel sighed. “Not as much as I would have thought,” he replied. “At least this time we actually had a conversation that didn’t end in a fight.”

Martin gave him a small smile. “Yeah, I guess that’s something.”

“So don’t ruin it now.”

The fell silent after that and just when Daniel had relaxed and thought that that night’s After School Special was over, Martin spoke up again.

“Daniel?”

“Yeah?”

“Just… I mean, I just wanted to…”

“Spit it out, Martin, I’m not a mind reader.”

“What are we doing?” Martin blurted out and Daniel raised his eyebrows.

“Excuse me?”

“It’s just… We spent the last two years not talking to each other at all and then we fought all the time and now… now it’s just…”

“Weird?” Daniel asked and Martin nodded.

“Yeah. Weird.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say,” Daniel sighed. “We’ve already talked about this. Let’s just… Let’s just call this a truce and see where it leads us, okay?”

Martin gave him a long, searching look, the he nodded. “Sure. That sounds… good.”

“Great. As long as you stop yelling at me for no good reason, this should work perfectly.”

“I’ll try.”

“So was that all?” Daniel asked. “Because I still got some homework to do before lights out and I can’t do that if we’re going to keep emoting all over the place.”

Martin snorted. “Don’t worry, no more _emoting_ for tonight, I promise.”

“See? That’s what I like to hear!”

They both stopped talking after that and Daniel got out his mobile phone, hiding it behind his book while he pretended to be actually doing homework.

 _‘i think i’m kinda starting to not hate m anymore? what do i do’_ he sent off to Finns and thankfully didn’t have to wait long for a reply.

_‘how the hell did that happen?’_

_‘idk, we sorta started talking a bit and he can be a moody bastard but idk he’s actually not that bad?’_

_‘dude’_

_‘what’_

_‘need i remind you of what happened the last time you two decided to be friends? because i will and neither of us will like it’_

_‘no’_

_‘good. but seriously dan, are you sure about this’_

_‘no’_

_‘he hurt you pretty bad the last time’_

_‘i know. but it feels different? like, we’re both older now and idk he seems to have changed’_

Finns didn’t reply for a few minutes and worriedly, Daniel started chewing on his bottom lip, waiting for a new text to come in.

  _‘i just don’t want you to have to go through all this shit again’_

_‘yeah me neither. and i’m not saying we’re gonna start braiding each other’s hair now and exchange bff necklaces or anything’_

_‘you better not. the only one who should get a bff necklace from you is me’_

Daniel cracked a smile. _‘don’t worry, i got you one for xmas’_

_‘this is the happiest moment of my life’_

_‘i’m sure it is. gotta go now, should get started on homework ugh’_

_‘have fun’_ Finns texted back. _‘and just be careful okay’_

Daniel smiled and placed his mobile phone surreptitiously on the night table. He was so glad to have Finns as his best friend. Finns always had his back. He wouldn’t have made it through the whole mess with Martin if it hadn’t been for Finns and his never-ending support and patience. Seriously, everyone should have their own Finns.

He covertly snuck a glance over at Martin, who had his nose buried in a book. It was weird and Daniel wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about it or what was going to happen, but maybe this could work after all.


End file.
